Clinical efficacy of arthroscopy in the treatment of discoid meniscus injury and related risk factors for postoperative pain.

BACKGROUND: Discoid meniscus is an abnormal meniscus of the knee joint. This study aimed to analyze the clinical efficacy of arthroscopy in the treatment of discoid meniscus injury, and determine the related risk factors for postoperative pain.

METHODS: A total of 80 patients with a discoid meniscus injury who were diagnosed and treated in our hospital from May 2017 to May 2018 were selected. According to the different surgical methods, they were divided into the study group (treated with meniscus plasty) or the control group (treated with subtotal meniscectomy). Knee joint motion and knee joint function were measured at 2, 6 and 12 weeks post-surgery. Knee joint function was measured using the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale to determine clinical efficacy. Patients with an excellent and good rating were included in the painless group, and patients with an average and poor rating were included in the pain group. The risk factors for postoperative pain were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS: Knee joint motion in the study group and the control group gradually increased and reached a peak 12 weeks after surgery (P<0.05), however, there was no significant difference between the 2 groups at each time point after surgery (P>0.05). The excellent and good rate, according to the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale, was 84.62% in the study group and 84.38% in the control group. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups (P>0.05). There were differences between the pain group and the painless group in Watanabe classification, age, preoperative symptom time, cold compress, joint soft tissue injury, and postoperative weight-bearing time ≤1 week (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Arthroscopy demonstrated efficacy for the treatment of patients with a discoid meniscus injury. Age, duration of preoperative symptoms, articular cartilage injury, postoperative cold compress and postoperative weight-bearing time were independent risk factors that affected postoperative pain after arthroscopic surgery. For high-risk patients, effective prevention and control measures should be taken to improve postoperative pain and promote the recovery of knee joint function.