Complications of arthroscopic meniscal repair

The results of 101 consecutive arthroscopic meniscal repairs were studied to determine the nature and frequency of associated complications. All arthroscopic repairs were done by the senior author (OS) between November 1984 and June 1991. Our data include 65 patients with associated anterior cruciate ligament injuries, of which 49 underwent concurrent arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. There was an overall complication rate of 18%. There was a 20% risk of complication with meniscal repair when associated with anterior cruciate ligament injury and 14% without anterior cruciate ligament injury. There was a 10% incidence of arthrofibrosis when meniscal repair was performed with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and a 6% incidence when performed in an anterior cruciate ligament-deficient, non-reconstructed knee. Overall, there was a 13% risk of complication with lateral repairs compared with 19% with medial repairs. In the subset of patients with intact anterior cruciate ligaments and isolated meniscal lesions, there were no complications associated with lateral repair and an 18% risk of complication with medial repair. Female patients demonstrated a higher likelihood of complication (29%) than male patients (13%). Excluding repair failures, there was an 8% reoperation or rehospitalization rate.