Functional Outcome Following Concurrent Medial Meniscus Posterior Horn Root Repair during High Tibial Osteotomy in Early Medial Compartment Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background: Meniscal root tears cause biomechanical changes comparable to a total meniscectomy. The resultant compromise in hoop stress, leads to decreased tibiofemoral contact area and increased contact pressure. This will lead to early arthritis. The meniscus root tear causes more detrimental changes in people with varus alignment of the lower limb. This increases the chances of progression to arthritis, causing joint pain and functional limitation, eventually necessitating early replacement surgery. Surgical management with repair of the meniscus, with corrective osteotomy restoring the normal anatomy, has been reported to improve clinical and functional outcomes and delay the replacement surgery. This study aimed to evaluate the functional outcome following concurrent Medial meniscus posterior horn root (MMPHRTs) repair during open medial wedge high tibial osteotomy (HTO) with medial osteoarthritis. Methods: We performed posterior horn root repair with open medial wedge HTO in 9 patients, between 2016 and 2021. The mean follow-up of patients was 2 years. The mean Lysholm and IKDC scores showed significant improvement (7 had excellent and 2 had satisfactory scores). Patients returned to their expected activity of daily living. Conclusion: Concurrent MMPHRT repair along with medial open wedge HTO for medial compartmental osteoarthritis with varus alignment gives good results and has shown good clinical and radiological outcome on short term follow-up. Keywords: Meniscal root tear, Medial open wedge HTO, Preoperative planning, Outcome.