[Plastic, partial meniscectomy for the discoid meniscus in children].
Plastic, partial meniscectomy which preserves the marginal part of meniscal cartilage was carried out in our hospital for children with symptomatic lateral discoid meniscus. The post-operative results were good in almost all patients at the follow-up evaluation. We will report on the operative techniques and the post-operative evaluation of these cases. From June 1982 to December 1989, 34 discoid lateral menisci in 27 children under the age of 15 years were operated on Itabashi Hospital of Nihon University. After recognition of discoid meniscus with arthroscopy, plastic, partial meniscectomy was carried out via a small transverse skin incision, forming the edge of a normal meniscus. About 2/3 of the central part of a discoid meniscus was resected, leaving about 1.0 cm of its marginal part. The average duration of follow-up was 5 years 4 months. The post-operative results were rated on the basis of the JOA Score for Meniscus Injuries and for the present series stood at 92.9 points. Among these 27 children, 17 had been injured during sports activities and all of them returned to their previous activities except three. Radiologically, mild osteoarthritic changes were noted in only a few cases during the follow-up period. It was concluded that plastic, partial meniscectomy was one of the variable procedures in the treatment of symptomatic discoid meniscus in children.
PubMed Abstracts
PubMed Abstracts