Partial meniscus removal (partial meniscectomy)

A partial removal of the meniscus is possible in the operation if the tear is too large to be sutured, but the injured piece of the meniscus is small enough to still maintain the function of the meniscus. If a partial resection is performed, the injured part of the meniscus is removed under visual control with the help of a small cutting device. Since the function of the inner meniscus must not be restricted too much, this form of surgery is only possible for minor damage.

If the inner meniscus loses its functionality (shock absorption), arthrosis of the knee joint (gonarthrosis) develops rapidly, as the sliding ability of the knee joint is lost. The advantage of this operation (OP) is the quick loading possibility. Depending on the pain situation, the knee can be loaded again on the day of the operation.

Meniscectomy (meniscus removal)

If the injury to the inner meniscus is too large, it must be removed completely. This operation is also performed as part of a knee arthroscopy. However, the knee joint cannot function properly without the inner meniscus as a sliding splint.

If the inner meniscus were missing, the first signs of knee joint arthrosis and cartilage damage would quickly appear. This causes severe pain and ultimately makes a knee joint replacement necessary. For this reason, a removed meniscus must be replaced in the operation.

Artificial meniscus

There are different materials for an artificial meniscus. This can be artificially made of different materials, or come directly from a corpse. The donor tissue is usually provided by internationally active tissue banks and comes from deceased accident victims.

In order to optimize the chances of recovery, the size, side and shape of the meniscus must fit exactly. Rejection reactions as with internal organs, for example the lungs, do not occur with a meniscus donation. The donor meniscus is placed at the same place of the original inner meniscus in the operation and thus ideally allows a new formation of the body’s own meniscus tissue.Although the transplantation of a donor meniscus has good chances of success, the waiting times are often very long.

For this reason, an artificial meniscus is often chosen in urgent cases. This consists of either synthetic polyurethane or biological collagen. Currently there are no study results available for synthetic meniscus implants.

However, there are very good results after implantation of a biological collagen implant from cattle. It has been shown that after about 2 years the biological material has been degraded and replaced by the body’s own meniscus tissue. The disadvantage of this form of therapy is a very long post-treatment period. In contrast to a partial meniscus removal with direct loading capacity, an implantation of an artificial meniscus requires a long follow-up treatment and very careful loading. For this reason, athletes have to expect a break of one year until full weight bearing is possible again.