PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN ALL-INSIDE ARTHROSCOPIC MENISCAL REPAIR: A COMPARISON OF TWO METHODS

Arthroscopic meniscal repair is still the subject of discussion. The first meniscal repair was performed by Hannandale in 1883 and the first arthroscopic repair by Ikeuchi in 1969. Today, arthroscopic meniscal repair is easy to perform, thanks to the many kind of devices in use. However, even though some colleagues such as Dehaven and Morgan report 20 years of experience, many others do not perform this type of procedure.The purpose of this paper is to report our experience with two different techniques for all-inside repair; Linvatec Suture Hook and Smith-Nephew Fast Fix device. Since May 2001 we have performed 41 arthroscopic meniscal repair procedures (23 with the Fast-Fix device) in young people with a recent mural lesion, with no axial defect, with or without combined anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction.The post-operative rehabilitation consisted in 15 days of isotonic and isometric physiotherapy without weight bearing; after this period progressive weight bearing is allowed to improve mu...