Medial meniscus extrusion correlates with disease duration of the sudden symptomatic medial meniscus posterior root tear

Introduction Medial meniscus posterior root tear (MMPRT) leads to abnormal biomechanics of the knee by inducing the medial meniscus extrusion (MME). However, a time-dependent increase of the MME is not fully elucidated in patients suffering from the acute MMPRT. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among disease duration of the MMPRT and severity of the MME. We hypothesized that MME measurement correlates with disease duration after a sudden onset of the minor traumatic MMPRT during the short-term follow-up period. Materials and methods Forty-six patients who had an accurate episode of the posteromedial painful popping were investigated. All the patients were diagnosed having a symptomatic MMPRT with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations. Absolute MME was measured using MRI scans within 12 months after painful popping events. A correlation coefficient between duration from injury to MRI examination and absolute MME was evaluated. Results Mean absolute MME was 4.5 ± 1.6 mm (range, 1.1 − 8.8 mm) on MRI measurements. A good correlation was observed between MME measurement and duration from injury to MRI examination (R² = 0.612). The best fit equation for predicting each value was: MME = 0.014 × disease duration + 3.288 mm. Discussion This study demonstrated that absolute MME increases progressively within the short duration after the onset of symptomatic MMPRT. Our results suggest that preoperative MME assessment may be important in determining disease duration and treatment strategy of the MMPRT. Level of evidence Retrospective cohort study; level IV.