The purpose of this study was radiologic assessment of osteoarthritis after arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. At an average followup of 53.5 months, 284 consecutive patients were retrospectively evaluated clinically and radiologically. Two hundred forty-seven patients had been treated for medial (Group I) and 37 for lateral meniscal tears (Group II). Preoperative radiographs were compared with those at followup and were classified. The results were analyzed statistically. Osteoarthritic changes were classified as being worse in 38% of the patients after medial and in 24% of the patients after lateral arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Further subclassification and comparison of patients with or without already existing articular surface damage at the time of arthroscopy were not found to have significant impact on the prevention of osteoarthritic changes. Patients who were older than 40 years of age and who had undergone arthroscopic partial medial meniscectomy were radiologically classified with a significantly higher rate of osteoarthritis than patients who were younger than 40 years. Partial medial or lateral meniscectomy leads to a significant increase of osteoarthritic changes, even when this intervention is performed arthroscopically.

Forty-four patients who had undergone unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions were evaluated retrospectively with seven different scoring systems (International Knee Documentation Committee, Orthopadische Arbeitsgruppe Knie, Lysholm, Feagin and Blake, Zarins and Rowe, Cincinnati, and Marshall scores). The results varied between systems and therefore lacked reliability. Of the 44 patients, 32 were rated as excellent according to the Cincinnati score while only 3 patients were rated as normal according to the International Knee Documentation Committee form. Good and excellent results were found twice as frequently with the Cincinnati and Lysholm scores compared with the scores of Zarins and Rowe or the International Knee Documentation Committee form. Statistical analysis confirmed this observation and revealed significant differences between the scoring systems. Side-to-side differences using the manual maximum displacement test with the KT-1000 arthrometer revealed good correlation with the International Knee Documentation Committee and the Orthopadische Arbeitsgruppe Knie questionnaires. None of the other scoring systems, which do not measure anterior laxity, produced reasonable correlation with instrumented measurements. We found that certain population-specific factors as well as the distribution of single findings can distort the results of scoring systems. To avoid these interference factors, the patient sample should be homogeneous and selected prospectively and there should be agreement about the value of single findings.