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Age-based comparison of meniscal dimensions between an asymptomatic complete discoid lateral meniscus and normal meniscus: MRI evaluation

  • Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 26 December 2023

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Abstract

Introduction

This study aimed to evaluate the meniscal size of asymptomatic discoid lateral meniscus (DLM) and compare it with that of normal lateral meniscus (LM) and to compare changes in meniscal dimensions with age among patients with asymptomatic DLM and those with normal LM using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials and methods

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records, including MRI data, of patients with asymptomatic DLM (DLM group) or normal LM (control group). Width and extrusion of both DLM and normal LM and tibial length were measured and compared using mid-coronal and mid-sagittal MR images. Meniscal size and sagittal and coronal meniscal ratio according to age, as well as differences between DLM and normal menisci, were also evaluated.

Results

Thirty-four knees were included in the DLM group, whereas the control group comprised of 50 patients. The DLM group showed significantly less meniscal extrusion, greater coronal width, posterior capsule distance, sagittal meniscal length, and sagittal meniscal ratio than the control group (DLM: 0.1 ± 0.3 mm, 23.3 ± 2.2 mm, 5.4 ± 2.4 mm, 25.1 ± 2.8 mm, 61 ± 6%, and control: 0.4 ± 0.4 mm, 9.5 ± 2.3 mm, 2.5 ± 1.2 mm, 30.2 ± 2.6 mm, 71 ± 4%, respectively). The coronal meniscal ratio decreased with age in both the control (p = 0.001) and DLM (p = 0.037) groups. The sagittal meniscal ratio (p = 0.001) and minimum height (p = 0.04) decreased and the anterior capsule distance (p = 0.035), posterior capsule distance (p = 0.026), and entire sagittal length (p = 0.005) increased with age in the DLM group, while the distance between the meniscal inner margins (p = 0.019) increased with age in the control group.

Conclusions

The meniscal ratio in the sagittal plane of the DLM group was significantly lower than that of the control group. The sagittal meniscal ratio of asymptomatic DLM decreased with age, indicating that the size of asymptomatic DLM does not change with age.

Level of evidence

III: Retrospective comparative study.

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Data availability

The data associated with this study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Change history

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Funding

No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka Metropolitan University, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan

    Yusuke Hashimoto, Kazuya Nishino & Nakamura Hiroaki

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka City University, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan

    Takuya Kinoshita & Ken Iida

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  1. Yusuke Hashimoto
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  2. Kazuya Nishino
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  4. Ken Iida
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  5. Nakamura Hiroaki
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Contributions

YH: conception and design, drafting of the article. KN: drafting of the article, and acquisition of the data. TK: interpretation of data. KI: drafting of the article, analysis of the data. HN: conception and design, final approval of the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yusuke Hashimoto.

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Institutional Review Board/Ethics Committee approval number: 2727.

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

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Hashimoto, Y., Nishino, K., Kinoshita, T. et al. Age-based comparison of meniscal dimensions between an asymptomatic complete discoid lateral meniscus and normal meniscus: MRI evaluation. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg 144, 791–798 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00402-023-05084-6

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