A new study claims that undergoing surgery to repair a meniscal tear in the knee could increase a person’s risk of developing arthritis.
The findings, presented at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting, say that meniscus surgery could contribute to cartilage loss and an elevated risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knee. For their study, researchers examined MRI scans of the knees of 355 patients with arthritis. They then compared the images to a similar numbers of knee scans in patients without arthritis. The median patient age was 60 years old, and most of the subjects were overweight.
After analyzing the data, researchers found:
- All 31 individuals who had their knee operated on to repair a meniscal tear developed arthritis within a year, while only 59 percent of those who opted for non-surgical treatment developed the same condition.
- 81 percent of patients who underwent surgery to repair a meniscus tear suffered cartilage loss in their knees. Only about 40 percent of individuals who did not have surgery suffered cartilage loss.
“We found that patients without knee osteoarthritis who underwent meniscal surgery had a highly increased risk for developing osteoarthritis and cartilage loss in the following year compared to those that did not have surgery, regardless of presence or absence of a meniscal tear in the year before,” says study author Frank Roemer, MD, from Boston University School of Medicine and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.
Dr. Roemer added that although surgery is an option for individuals with meniscal tears, “increasing evidence is emerging that suggests meniscal surgery may be detrimental to the knee joint.”
He concluded by saying other options “need to be discussed more carefully in order to avoid accelerated knee joint degeneration.”
Dr. Silverman comments
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that some knee operations may be unnecessary. I think there are certainly other factors that have led to osteoarthritic degeneration of the knee, and 31 isn’t a huge sample size, but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the findings.
We owe it to our patients to provide them with the best care and not just temporary solutions that lead to other problems down the road. Each and every day we are making advancements in healthcare and surgical techniques. These studies help bring our shortcomings to light, and now it’s our turn to do everything in our power to improve on those shortcomings.
Related source: OutPatientSurgery.net