Clinical efficacy and pain follow-up after arthroscopic discoid meniscoplasty of the knee: a retrospective study.

Background: To assess the viability and efficiency of performing arthroscopic meniscoplasty in treating discoid meniscus (DM) in the knee joint.

Methods: A total of 29 patients diagnosed with symptomatic lateral DM between October 2014 and December 2019 were included in the study. Among them, 7 patients with intact DM underwent arthroscopic discoid meniscoplasty (group A), while 22 patients with torn DM received arthroscopic DM plasty along with repair and suturing (group B). Both Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score and Lysholm score assessments were conducted preoperatively and postoperatively.

Result: The favorable and acceptable outcome rate was 85.71% in group A and 95.45% in group B (P > 0.05). The VAS scores post-operatively at each follow-up time point were consistently lower compared to pre-operative values, while the Lysholm knee function scores showed improvement. There were no significant differences in VAS score and Lysholm score between group A and group B at different stages (P > 0.05). Both surgical techniques (discoid meniscoplasty and discoid meniscoplasty combined with repair and suture) showed significant improvement in postoperative VAS score and Lysholm score, but there was no difference in outcomes between the two groups.

Conclusion: Overall, the two surgical techniques studied in this study (discoid meniscoplasty and discoid meniscoplasty combined with repair and suture) produced similar results in terms of pain reduction and improved knee function.