Study Finds Meniscus Surgery Linked to Osteoarthritis

Individuals who undergo surgery to repair tears in the meniscus cartilage in their knees often develop osteoarthritis in that knee within a year of the operation. That is the result of a study conducted by Frank Roemer, M.D., researcher and associate professor of radiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

Roemer observed radiographic-diagnosed osteoarthritis in 31 knees that had had meniscal surgery and in 58.9% of a group of 165 knees that had experienced meniscal damage. He found that the risk of cartilage loss was greatly increased for knees that had experienced any kind of meniscal damage.

All of the 31 knees that showed evidence of osteoarthritis were from patients who had undergone meniscus surgery—31 of 354 patients. Of those patients who did not have surgery for their meniscus tears none went on to develop osteoarthritis during the study period.

Roemer is quoted by MedPage Today as saying, “We found that in a group of patients without osteoarthritis, all knees that developed osteoarthritis within one year were among those patients who had meniscus surgery. We also observed that the risk for cartilage loss was much higher in patients who had knee surgery compared with those who had meniscus damage but did not have surgery.” Roemer said that how surgery on the meniscus could cause osteoarthritis “is not clearly understood.”