Publication:

Retrospective analysis of prevalence of discoid lateral meniscus in medial compartmental osteoarthritis knee lead to total knee arthroplasty: an observational study

Background In Asia, the occurrence of the discoid lateral meniscus in the knee ranges from 9.1% to 10.5%. Nawata et al, found that among individuals with a discoid lateral meniscus, subchondral bone sclerosis was more frequently observed in the medial compartment and there was a higher prevalence of varus inclination. Our hypothesis was that individuals with a discoid lateral meniscus faced a significantly higher incidence of osteoarthritis and deformities. In our study, we assessed the prevalence of discoid lateral meniscus in individuals who underwent total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis knee.

Methods In our study, we retrospectively reviewed 324 patients (364 knees) fulfilling the criteria who underwent Total knee replacement. We analyzed the prevalence of discoid lateral meniscus in osteoarthritis knee in our study.

Results In our study involving 324 patients (364 knees) with Osteoarthritis knee, varus deformity was observed in 298 patients (312 knees). Among these 324 patients, 64 patients (72 knees) had discoid lateral meniscus. Our findings show that individuals with a discoid meniscus are likely to develop osteoarthritis approximately 5 years earlier than those with a normal meniscus. Furthermore, in our study, the prevalence of discoid lateral meniscus among individuals with osteoarthritis of the knee was found to be around 20 percent (19.75%).

Conclusions A discoid lateral meniscus can lead to osteoarthritis in the knee with varus malalignment much earlier than people with a normal semilunar meniscus.