Authors' recommendations: The menisci of the human knee are susceptible to tear, which may occur with knee trauma or in a degenerated meniscus, and is characterized by knee pain, stiffness, swelling, locking, giving way, and range of motion (ROM) limitations. When symptoms persist after conservative management, meniscal tears may be treated by surgical repair (suture of the tear), meniscectomy (removal of damaged meniscal tissue), and/or meniscal allograft (transplant of a donor meniscus). Surgical repair is an option only for meniscal tears that are located in a vascularized area of the meniscus, since healing cannot occur in a nonvascularized area. Because meniscectomy results in loss of meniscal tissue and consequent joint degeneration and osteoarthritis, partial meniscectomy is preferred over total or subtotal meniscectomy, when appropriate, to preserve as much meniscal tissue as possible. Total or subtotal meniscectomy may be followed by meniscal allograft, but allograft is limited by patient selection criteria, availability of donor tissue, and risk for immune reaction and disease transmission. The problems and limitations of surgical options for meniscal tear led to the development of meniscal tissue-engineering implants as a means for regenerating partial native tissue loss.

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2014

URL for published report: The report may be purchased from: http://www.hayesinc.com/hayes/crd/?crd=17382

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: United States

Organisation Name: HAYES, Inc.

Contact Address: 157 S. Broad Street, Suite 200, Lansdale, PA 19446, USA. Tel: 215 855 0615; Fax: 215 855 5218

Contact Name: saleinfo@hayesinc.com

Contact Email: saleinfo@hayesinc.com

Copyright: 2014 Winifred S. Hayes, Inc