In this prospective randomised study two treatments after non-traumatic medial meniscal tear diagnosed with radiological examination and magnetic resonance imaging were compared; arthroscopic partial meniscectomy followed by supervised exercise or supervised exercise alone. The aim was to evaluate knee function and physical activity. Ninety patients (mean age 56 years) were evaluated using the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, the Lysholm Knee Scoring Scale, the Tegner Activity Scale and a Visual Analogue Scale for knee pain prior to the intervention, after 8 weeks of exercise and after 6 months. According to the outcome scores arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy combined with exercise did not lead to greater improvement than exercise alone. After the intervention both groups reported decreased knee pain, improved knee function and a high satisfaction (P<0.0001). Forty-one per cent of the patients returned to their pre-injury activity level after 6 months. In conclusion, when evaluated with outcome scores, arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy followed by supervised exercise was not superior to supervised exercise alone in terms of reduced knee pain, improved knee function and improved quality of life.

I.

The aim of the present investigation was to study patient-reported long-term outcome after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. On an average 11.5 years after ACL reconstruction with bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) autograft 56 patients were asked to answer four different questionnaires about their knee function and knee-related quality of life. Another aim was to study whether there were any correlations between clinical tests, commonly used for evaluating patients with ACL injuries, which were performed 2 years after ACL reconstruction, and patient-reported outcome in terms of knee function and knee-related quality of life on an average 9.5 years later. All patients who had unilateral BPTB ACL reconstructions were examined at 2 years and on an average 11.5 years after surgery. At 2 years one-leg hop test for distance, isokinetic muscle torque measurement, sagittal knee laxity, Lysholm knee scoring scale and Tegner activity scale were used for clinical evaluation. At the follow-up on an average 9.5 years later the patients were evaluated with knee injury osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS), short form health survey (SF 36), Lysholm knee scoring scale and Tegner activity scale. The SF-36 showed that the patients had a similar health condition as an age- and gender-matched normal population in Sweden on an average 11.5 years after ACL reconstruction. There was no correlation between the results of one-leg hop test for distance, isokinetic muscle torque measurement, sagittal knee laxity evaluated 2 years after surgery and the result of KOOS (function in sport and recreation, knee-related quality of life) and SF-36 evaluated on an average 11.5 years after surgery. We also compared patients that 2 years after surgery demonstrated a side-to-side difference in anterior-posterior knee laxity of more than 3 mm with those with 3 mm or less and found no significant group differences in terms of knee function as determined with KOOS. We found no correlation between the results of KOOS and SF-36 at the long-term follow-up and the time between injury and surgery, age at surgery or gender, respectively. We conclude that there is no correlation between patient-reported knee function in sport and recreation and knee-related quality of life on an average 11.5 years after BPTP ACL reconstruction and the evaluation methods used 2 years after surgery.