Meniscal injuries in basketball players

Basketball is a highly competitive sport in which the knee joint is constantly subject to physical stresses. Basketball-related traumatic injuries are the result of specific technical movements. Even though basketball is not considered a contact sport, injuries in basketball players are due both to athletes' handling of the ball and to their intense physical interaction during games. Nowadays, traumatic meniscal injuries are constantly on the increase, especially in young athletes, and they are generally the result of compressive forces together with knee flexion rotation. Recognition of the great importance of meniscal biomechanics and of the functional role of the meniscus has resulted in the adoption of an increasingly preserving approach, also in the light of the effects, in terms of articular degeneration, of removing meniscal tissue. Even though recent decades have seen considerable developments in arthroscopic meniscectomy techniques, geared at preserving as much meniscal tissue as possible, basketball players undergoing this treatment often present, in the long run, clinical symptomatology severe enough to compromise their participation in competitive sport. Hence the treatment of meniscal injuries in athletes has become more and more preserving in recent years, through recourse to surgical techniques such as meniscal repair, biological replacement implantation and donor meniscus implantation, which allow pain relief, return to competitive activities and stable long-term results, slowing down arthritic progression. Therefore, considering the increasing number of meniscal injuries in basketball players, which can jeopardize their sporting careers, great importance is now attached to early diagnosis and to the correct choice of meniscal injury treatment in these athletes.