Medical decision making in patients with knee pain, meniscal tear, and osteoarthritis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Meniscal tears and osteoarthritis (OA) frequently coexist, but to our knowledge, no data exist to identify who will benefit from arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) versus nonoperative management. Our objective was to evaluate the capability of preoperative information to predict APM outcomes in OA.

Methods

Using a mathematical model and published data, we combined 2 clinical (mechanical symptoms and pain pattern) and 2 magnetic resonance imaging (tear type and bone marrow lesions) indicators into 36 possible combinations and ranked each combination according to the likelihood of having primarily tear- versus OA-related pain in individuals ages 45-65 years with knee pain, OA, and meniscal tears. By considering alternative thresholds for performing APM, we ident

SUBMITTER: Suter LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2804854 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature