09.15.14
Moderate evidence suggests there is no benefit to arthroscopic meniscal debridement for degenerative meniscal tears in middle-aged patients with mild or no concomitant osteoarthritis compared with nonoperative or sham treatments, according to researchers.
After searching the Medline, Embase and the Cochrane databases, researchers from the University of Michigan and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, identified seven randomized, controlled trials published from 1946 to January 2014 that involved patients with degenerative medical tears and mild or no concurrent osteoarthritis presenting with knee pain, and that compared arthroscopic medical debridement with nonoperative treatments. The research team included Asheesh Bedi, M.D., an assistant professor of sports medicine at the University of Michigan; Moin Khan, M.D., chief resident of orthopedic surgery at McMaster University; Nathan Evaniew, M.D., who is pursuing a career as an academic spine surgeon at McMaster: Olufemi R. Ayeni, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at McMaster; and Mohit Bhandari, a professor and academic chair of orthopedic surgery at McMaster.
The research team assessed risk of bias and pooled outcomes using a random-effects model, and outcomes of function and pain relief were dichotomized to short-term and long-term data.
Overall, results of the pooled analysis showed arthroscopic surgery did not result in significant improvements in patients’ pain scores in the short or long term, according to the researchers.
Although the short-term functional outcomes were significant between groups, they did not exceed the threshold for minimally important difference.
Additionally, no significant or minimally important differences were seen between treatment arms for long-term functional outcomes, according to the researchers.
After searching the Medline, Embase and the Cochrane databases, researchers from the University of Michigan and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, identified seven randomized, controlled trials published from 1946 to January 2014 that involved patients with degenerative medical tears and mild or no concurrent osteoarthritis presenting with knee pain, and that compared arthroscopic medical debridement with nonoperative treatments. The research team included Asheesh Bedi, M.D., an assistant professor of sports medicine at the University of Michigan; Moin Khan, M.D., chief resident of orthopedic surgery at McMaster University; Nathan Evaniew, M.D., who is pursuing a career as an academic spine surgeon at McMaster: Olufemi R. Ayeni, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at McMaster; and Mohit Bhandari, a professor and academic chair of orthopedic surgery at McMaster.
The research team assessed risk of bias and pooled outcomes using a random-effects model, and outcomes of function and pain relief were dichotomized to short-term and long-term data.
Overall, results of the pooled analysis showed arthroscopic surgery did not result in significant improvements in patients’ pain scores in the short or long term, according to the researchers.
Although the short-term functional outcomes were significant between groups, they did not exceed the threshold for minimally important difference.
Additionally, no significant or minimally important differences were seen between treatment arms for long-term functional outcomes, according to the researchers.