Bucket-handle tear of the medial meniscus. A case for conservative surgery
Cargill-AO; Jackson-JP J-Bone-Joint-Surg-Am. 1976 Mar; 58(2): 248-51 To compare the results of two methods of treatment for bucket-handle tears of the medial meniscus eighty-seven knees were studied, thirty-seven treated by excision of the bucket-handle tear alone and fifty by total meniscectomy. A postoperative history suggestive of locking was given by one patient in each treatment group. Anteroposterior laxity was found in 72% of knees treated by excision of the bucket-handle tear alone as compared with 68% of the knees treated by total meniscectomy, but in all other respects the results showed a marginal preference in favor of the simpler operation. Although the numbers are too small to prove that results are better following excision of the bucket-handle tear alone, it is suggested, in the absence of evidence that total meniscectomy is more advantageous, that the simpler operation of excision of just the bucket-handle tear is the treatment of choice in bucket-handle tears of the medial meniscus.
Original Text by Clifford R. Wheeless, III, MD.
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