Balance Evaluation and Gait Analysis After Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy

The purpose of this study is to investigate how walking and balance are affected at different time intervals after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM).

Forty-five patients with APM and a healthy control group of 46 people were included in the study. Gait and bipedal balance analysis were performed to the patient group twice in 4 weeks and 12 weeks after surgery.

In the gait analysis performed after 4 weeks, stance phase (SP), step time (ST), and total double support (TDS) were higher, and step length (SL), swing phase (SWP), cadence (C), and speed (V) in the patient group were lower. After 12 weeks, SP, TDS, and step width (SW) data were higher in the patient group and SWP was lower. In both measurements, the gait of the patient group is not symmetrical. In open-eye balance test, it was observed that the data of length of ellipse (LoE), area of ellipse (AoE), and path length of CoP (PL) were different after 4 weeks but these differences disappeared after 12 weeks. Width of ellipse (WoE), LoE, AoE, and PL data were different in the test performed with eyes closed after 4 weeks. In addition to the same data after 12 weeks, the medio-lateral direction (ML) was also higher than the patient group.

After 12 weeks, walking has not fully recovered. There was no difference in the balance analysis with eyes open, but the differences were still present in the eyes-closed analysis.