The posterior horn of the medial meniscus, which bears most of the stress applied to the medial compartment. Therefore, this area is more prone to traumatic or degenerative rupture [38, 39]. Once root injury occurs, the biomechanical changes are the same as after total meniscectomy [40]. Due to the particularity of living habits, Asian women have a higher risk of damage to the posterior medial meniscus root [41]. According to the morphology, there are six types of MMPRT, Laprad II refers to complete radial tear within 9 mm of the center of the root attachment, which is the most common type of MMPRT [42].
The long-term results of conservative treatment and meniscectomy for MMPRT are not satisfactory. Conservative treatment, meniscectomy, and meniscus repair result in osteoarthritis in 95.1%, 99.3%, and 53.0% of the cases, respectively [43]. Worse functional recovery is associated with female gender, increased BMI, and meniscus extrusion [44]. The purpose of surgical repair of the posterior root is to restore the continuity of the annular structure of the meniscus, the stability of the patellofemoral joint, and the pressure distribution of the medial compartment. The repair methods include pull-out repair [14–21], all-inside repair [22–26], anchor suture repair [45].
Pull-out repair is a classic technique, which has been used for more than 20 years [12, 13]. Similarly, no obvious progression of cartilage and subchondral bone lesions were observed after repair [15]. Postoperative root healing is a concern for clinicians, because the healing of the posterior root is closely related to the functional prognosis. Previous studies have found that the healing rate of pull-out repair is 97%, of which 62% is completely healed [16]. According to the study by Cho et al. [17], all patients had improved function after repair, but the functional improvement was more obvious in the healing group. In this study, the meniscus healing rate after the pull-out repair was 96.23%, which is basically consistent with previous studies, and the postoperative function of patients improved significantly compared with that before surgery.
To ensure the therapeutic effect of pull-out repair, the first step is to fellow the contraindications of surgery [16]. The judgment of the footprint of the medial meniscus is another keypoint [18]. The autopsy found that the posterior root of the medial meniscus is connected to the tibial plateau through dense fibers, and the footprint is behind the medial intercondylar ridge of the tibia, outside the inflection point of the articular cartilage of the medial plateau of the tibia, and anterior medial to the attachment point of the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) of the tibia [19]. A layer of "shining fibers" behind the dense fibers was not considered to be part of the root attachment. A distinction should be made in determining anatomic stops [20]. When there is meniscus extrusion, especially when there is adhesion of the posterior joint capsule, the in situ fixation cannot restore the normal mechanical environment of the knee joint [21], and the release of the root tissue of the posterior meniscus is necessary for anatomical reconstruction.
The side-to-side repair technique can theoretically achieve anatomical repair of the posterior tibial root without changing the original physiological characteristics of the meniscus. The main advantages of all-inside meniscus suture are lower invasiveness, reduced technical difficulty, avoiding additional incisions or tibial tunnel drilling, and avoiding interference with the bone tunnel during ligament reconstruction. The all-inside repair method can reduce the peak pressure of the medial compartment of the tibiofemoral joint after MMPRT, and its stiffness and failure load are similar to those of the pull-out repair technique [22–24]. Kyoung et al. [24] found that the healing rate of all-inside suture was higher than that of pull-out repair (96 vs. 81%), and the functional prognosis of the former was significantly better than that of the latter. Our study confirmed that the healing rates of the all-inside repair and pull-out repair group were 96.23% and 92.86%, respectively, with no significant difference. The clinical observation study conducted by Jason suggesting that FasT-Fix suture could be used as an alternative method to treat MMPRT [25].
Meniscus extrusion is an important factor that induces knee osteoarthritis [46, 47]. Previous studies have shown that although the meniscus extrusion could not be corrected after MMPRT repair, all patients show improvement in knee function after surgery [48, 49]. In our study, neither pull-out repair method not all-inside repair were able to reverse meniscus extrusion, and the progression of osteoarthritis could also be observed. It has been suggested that the combined centralization of posterior meniscus root repair can reduce the extrusion of medial meniscus and restore the function of load distribution [50]. An observational study by Krych et al. [12] also showed that posterior meniscal root repair combined with centralized surgery resulted in significant improvements in postoperative pain, function, and quality of life, and reported high surgical satisfaction. Therefore, centralization of meniscus during posterior root repair is a problem worthy of further study.
This study had several limitations. First, the main limitation of this study is its retrospective nature. Second, the study's follow-up time was insufficient to assess the long-term efficacy of either treatment. Third, only MRI was used to evaluate the healing of the posterior meniscus root without the second postoperative microscopic examination, and the results were not intuitive enough.