Executive Summary

US researchers have used an arthroscope in patients as young as nine years of age to repair the part of the meniscus without a blood supply, previously considered as "non-repairable". Frank Noyes, of the Cincinnati Sportsmedicine and Orthopaedic Center in Ohio, says that half of the 28,000 meniscal excisions that took place in 1996 in young patients could be repaired in an outpatient setting using the arthroscopic procedure, rather than excised. In a 61-patient study, three-quarters of the patients were pain-free four years after surgery. Dr Noyes reported his findings at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon meeting in San Francisco earlier this month.