Simonetta R, Russo A, Palco M, Costa GG, Mariani PP. Meniscus tears treatment: The good, the bad and the ugly-patterns classification and practical guide. World J Orthop 2023; 14(4): 171-185 [PMID: 37155506 DOI: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i4.171]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Giuseppe Gianluca Costa, MD, Surgeon, Orthopaedic and Traumatology Unit, Umberto I Hospital, C.da Ferrante, Enna 94100, Italy. gianlucacosta@hotmail.it
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Orthop. Apr 18, 2023; 14(4): 171-185 Published online Apr 18, 2023. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v14.i4.171
Meniscus tears treatment: The good, the bad and the ugly-patterns classification and practical guide
Roberto Simonetta, Arcangelo Russo, Michelangelo Palco, Giuseppe Gianluca Costa, Pier Paolo Mariani
Roberto Simonetta, Michelangelo Palco, Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Villa del Sole Clinic, Catanzaro 88100, Italy
Arcangelo Russo, Giuseppe Gianluca Costa, Orthopaedic and Traumatology Unit, Umberto I Hospital, Enna 94100, Italy
Pier Paolo Mariani, Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Villa Stuart Sport Clinic-FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Roma 00135, Italy
Author contributions: Simonetta R and Russo A were involved in study design and images collection; Palco M and Costa GG were involved in manuscript writing and literature research; Mariani PP was involved in language editing and final revision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Giuseppe Gianluca Costa, MD, Surgeon, Orthopaedic and Traumatology Unit, Umberto I Hospital, C.da Ferrante, Enna 94100, Italy. gianlucacosta@hotmail.it
Received: December 11, 2022 Peer-review started: December 11, 2022 First decision: January 9, 2023 Revised: January 22, 2023 Accepted: March 31, 2023 Article in press: March 31, 2023 Published online: April 18, 2023
Abstract
Over the years, several studies demonstrated the crucial role of knee menisci in joint biomechanics. As a result, save the meniscus has become the new imperative nowadays, and more and more studies addressed this topic. The huge amount of data on this topic may create confusion in those who want to approach this surgery. The aim of this review is to provide a practical guide for treatment of meniscus tears, including an overview of technical aspects, outcomes in the literature and personal tips. Taking inspiration from a famous movie directed by Sergio Leone in 1966, the authors classified meniscus tears in three categories: The good, the bad and the ugly lesions. The inclusion in each group was determined by the lesion pattern, its biomechanical effects on knee joint, the technical challenge, and prognosis. This classification is not intended to substitute the currently proposed classifications on meniscus tears but aims at offering a reader-friendly narrative review of an otherwise difficult topic. Furthermore, the authors provide a concise premise to deal with some aspects of menisci phylogeny, anatomy and biomechanics.
Core Tip: Several studies investigated the effects of a meniscus tear and its optimal treatment. This review aims at providing a practical guide on this topic, including an overview of technical aspects, outcomes in the literature and personal tips.
