Abstract
Meniscal repairs are commonly performed during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This study aimed to identify the risk factors for meniscal repair failure following concurrent primary ACL reconstruction.
Primary ACL reconstructions with a concurrent repair of a meniscal tear recorded in the New Zealand ACL Registry between April 2014 and December 2018 were analyzed. Meniscal repair failure was defined as a patient who underwent subsequent meniscectomy, and was identified after cross-referencing data from the ACL Registry with the national database of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). Multivariate Cox regression was performed to produce hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) to identify the patient and surgical risk factors for meniscal repair failure.
2041 meniscal repairs were analyzed (medial = 1235 and lateral = 806). The overall failure rate was 9.4% (n = 192). Failure occurred in 11.1% of medial (137/1235) and 6.8% of lateral (55/806) meniscal repairs. The risk of medial failure was higher with hamstring tendon autografts (adjusted HR = 2.00, 95% CI 1.23 – 3.26, p = 0.006) and in patients with cartilage injury in the medial compartment (adjusted HR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.09 – 2.23, p = 0.015). The risk of lateral failure was higher when the procedure was performed by a surgeon with an annual case volume of less than 30 ACL reconstructions (adjusted HR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.10 – 3.33, p = 0.021). Age, gender, time from injury-to-surgery and femoral tunnel drilling technique did not influence the risk of meniscal repair failure.
When repairing a meniscal tear during ACL reconstruction, the use of a hamstring tendon autograft or the presence of cartilage injury in the medial compartment increases the risk of medial meniscal repair failure. Lower surgeon case volume increases the risk of lateral meniscal repair failure.
