[Arthroscopic menisectomy in older patients: assessing health-related quality of life]

Little information is available on partial arthroscopic menisectomy in patients 60 years of age or older. Due to the co-morbidity of meniscal tears and osteoarthritis in this age group, the effectiveness of this procedure is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of this procedure in terms of function and mobility in patients 60 years of age or older.

Between 1990 and 1999, 1920 arthroscopies of the knee were performed in a single primary care institution, and 51 patients, 60 years of age or older, had a partial arthroscopic menisectomy done. Outcomes were rated using the SF-36 Health Survey and a specially designed questionnaire including items of published scores.

The mean age at surgery was 67 years (range: 60.3 - 78.9) and the mean follow-up was 5 years (range: 2 - 12). Due to persistent pain, 4 patients underwent a second operation including knee replacement in 3 cases and a high tibial osteotomy in 1 case. 41 patients (87.1 %) stated the arthroscopy had improved their quality of life. In terms of pain and daily life activities, the majority of the subjects showed an improvement after surgery. The SF-36 showed no clinically relevant difference compared to the control in all but one subscale.

Despite of the presence of osteoarthritis in this age group, arthroscopic partial menisectomy can improve pain, function and mobility in the mid-term course.