[Treatment of discoid meniscus tear with meniscal allograft]

To investigate the effectiveness of meniscal allograft in treatment of discoid meniscus tear.

Between May 2005 and September 2009, 7 cases of discoid meniscus tear were treated with meniscal allograft. There were 2 males and 5 females with an average age of 22.6 years (range, 18-33 years). The locations were the left knee in 5 cases and the right knee in 2 cases. The causes were sport trauma in 4 cases, impact injury in 2 cases, and no apparent reason in I case. Of them, 7 cases had joint tenderness gap, 2 cases had positive results in floating patella test, 7 cases had positive results in McMurray test, and 6 cases had positive results in squatting test. The range of knee motion was 0-60 degrees. The disease duration ranged from 3 months to 17 years (median, 26 months).

The number of the pins was 9-13 (mean, 11). The operative time ranged from 1.5 to 2.7 hours (mean, 1.7 hours). The postoperative fever time ranged from 31 to 57 hours (mean, 46.4 hours). Incisions healed by first intention in 6 cases; infection occurred in 1 case after operation and was cured after 18 days of local irrigation with antibiotic saline. Seven patients were followed up 21.6 months on average (range, 12-53 months). The range of knee motion was 0-125 degrees. All patients had the negative results of floating patella test, McMurray test, and squatting test. MRI showed that there was a good healing between the transplanted meniscus and the surrounding synovium. The Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score was 80.71 +/- 4.82 at 6 months after operation, showing significant difference (t = 10.11, P = 0.00) when compared with the score (41.71 +/- 8.07) before operation.

Meniscal allograft in treatment of discoid meniscus tear is a reliable and effective method, which can ease knee pain.