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Comparative analysis of discoid lateral meniscus size: a distinction between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases

  • KNEE
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

This study evaluated the differences in meniscal sizes and occupancy between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients diagnosed with discoid lateral meniscus (DLM) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to understand how these variations relate to the presence of symptoms and the patients’ age.

Methods

A retrospective review of 98 patients with DLM was conducted, excluding those with meniscal displacement. Both the width and extrusion of DLM and the percentage of the meniscus to the tibia were measured using mid-coronal and mid-sagittal MRI and compared between symptomatic and asymptomatic DLM groups. The relationships among each parameter, meniscal size, and patient age were evaluated. Symptomatic cases were divided into those with and without horizontal tears on MRI to compare the differences in meniscal morphology.

Results

A total of 92 knees from 74 patients were included. Sixty-one knees required surgical intervention for symptomatic DLM, while 31 were asymptomatic and included the contralateral side of symptomatic knees. The symptomatic group exhibited larger morphological variations than the asymptomatic group. Moreover, the sagittal meniscal ratio reduced with age in the asymptomatic group (r = − 0.54, p = 0.002) but remained constant in the symptomatic group. The symptomatic cases with horizontal tears demonstrated larger meniscal dimensions and smaller posterior capsule distances than those without tears.

Conclusion

Symptomatic patients with DLM had larger knee morphological changes than asymptomatic ones. Age affected the meniscal occupancy in the sagittal plane only in asymptomatic patients.

Level of evidence

III.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

DLM:

Discoid lateral meniscus

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

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Funding

The authors have no funding information to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-4-3 Asahi-Machi, Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-8585, Japan

    Kazuya Nishino, Yusuke Hashimoto, Ken Iida, Shuko Tsumoto & Hiroaki Nakamura

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Saiseikai Nakatsu Hospital, Osaka, Japan

    Takuya Kinoshita

Authors
  1. Kazuya Nishino
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  2. Yusuke Hashimoto
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  3. Takuya Kinoshita
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  4. Ken Iida
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  5. Shuko Tsumoto
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  6. Hiroaki Nakamura
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Contributions

KN conception and design. Drafting of the article. YH conception, and critical revision of the article for important intellectual content. TK interpretation of data. KI revising the manuscript and data collection. ST data collection HN conception and design, final approval of the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yusuke Hashimoto.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee (No. 2728).

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Informed consent was obtained from all the participants included in the study.

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Nishino, K., Hashimoto, Y., Kinoshita, T. et al. Comparative analysis of discoid lateral meniscus size: a distinction between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 31, 5783–5790 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-023-07650-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-023-07650-2

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