Modified Outside-in Repair Technique for Chronic Retracted, Unstable Bucket-Handle Anterior Horn Lateral Meniscal Tear

Abstract

The meniscus plays a very important role in normal functioning of the knee joint. It acts as a shock absorber, gives stability to the knee joint, delays the onset of osteoarthritis, provides load sharing, and so on. It is a well-known fact that after meniscectomy, there is a significant increase in joint reaction forces leading to early osteoarthritis. Hence, in the past decade, meniscal repair has gain enormous importance and various techniques have been developed to repair the meniscus. Conventionally, posterior-third meniscal tears are repaired with all-inside and outside-in techniques whereas middle-third meniscal tears are repaired with all 3 methods: inside out, outside in, and all inside. For tears of the anterior horn of the meniscus, only the outside-in method is used. We have developed a method for repair of chronic unreduced, retracted bucket-handle anterior horn lateral meniscal tears, in which we combined the use of both the outside-in and all-inside methods of repair. Hence, this method is called modified outside-in meniscal repair for chronic retracted bucket-handle anterior horn lateral meniscal tears.