Arthroscopy Knee Surgery Complications Up

Complication rates for arthroscopy knee surgery may be higher than initially believed, according to a study of 92, 565 cases carried out by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The cases were entered in the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery database by applicants taking their board examinations.

According to David Geier, M.D., arthroscopic knee surgery has revolutionized sports medicine, increasing by 46% between 1996 and 2006. Geier says that an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy is the most common orthopedic operation performed today in the United States.

The Pittsburgh study revealed that, overall, 4.7% of arthroscopic knee surgeries had a postoperative complication and that the complication rate varied with the type of procedure. A partial meniscectomy had the lowest complication rate of 2.8%. As the surgeries become more complex, the complication rates go up. Meniscal repairs had a complication rate of 7.6% while 9.0% of ACL reconstructions and 20.1% of PCL reconstructions experienced complications.

The study, published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, also revealed that patients younger than 40 had a higher complication rate (6.2%) than did patients older than 40. Geier suggested that a reason for this finding could be that younger patients are more likely to undergo ACL reconstruction, PCL reconstruction and meniscal repair surgeries than are older patients.