How Successful are Meniscus Repair All-Inside Implants during Deployment?

The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of implants successfully deployed during arthroscopic all-inside meniscal repair. A data query of meniscus repair (Current Procedural Terminology [CPT] codes: 29882 and 29883) procedures was performed at a single institution. The query was limited to include procedures performed between June 1, 2020, and June 1, 2023. Multiple different manufacturer implants were used by five sports medicine fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons. The number of implants successfully used and the number of implants wasted due to intraoperative failure during meniscal repair were found on EPIC and documented for each procedure. The success rate of meniscal implants was determined by dividing the number of implants wasted by the total number of implants used. The query identified 1,026 patients who underwent meniscus repair. From this cohort, 3,867 total meniscal implants were utilized for an average of 3.77 implants per case. Overall, all-inside meniscus repair was found to have a low implant failure or waste rate (1.03% [n = 40]). The highest failure rates were found with JuggerStitch Curved (9.38%), NOVOSTITCH Cartridge 0 Suture (2.44%), and TRUESPAN 12 Degrees (2.11%) implants. The most important finding was that the overall failure rate of meniscal implants is low. Implants with higher waste rates should be addressed by the industry and considered by surgeons when selecting surgical implants. These preliminary findings establish the necessity to further examine the implant failure rate and the associated costs of meniscus repair.