Meniscus allograft survival in patients with moderate to severe unicompartmental arthritis: a 2- to 7-year follow-up.
OBJECTIVE
We present meniscus allograft survival data at least 2 years from surgery for 45 patients (47 allografts) with significant arthrosis to determine if the meniscus can survive in an arthritic joint.


METHODS
Prospective, longitudinal survival study.


METHODS
Data were collected for 31 men and 14 women, mean age 48 years (range, 14 to 69 years), with preoperative evidence of significant arthrosis and an Outerbridge classification greater than II. Failure is established by previous studies as allograft removal. No patient was lost to follow-up.


RESULTS
The success rate was 42 of 47 allografts (89.4%) with a mean failure time of 4.4 years as assessed by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Statistical power is greater than 0.9, with alpha = 0.05 and N = 47. There was significant mean improvement in preoperative versus postoperative self-reported measures of pain, activity, and functioning, with P = .001, P = .004, and P = .001, respectively, as assessed by a Wilcoxon rank-sum test with P = .05.


CONCLUSIONS
Meniscus allografts can survive in a joint with arthrosis, challenging the contraindications of age and arthrosis severity. These results compare favorably with those in previous reports of meniscus allograft survival in patients without arthrosis.


METHODS
Level IV.
Stone
Kevin R
KR
Stone Research Foundation, San Francisco, California, USA.
Walgenbach
Ann W
AW
Turek
Thomas J
TJ
Freyer
Abhi
A
Hill
Martin D
MD
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001178:Arthroplasty; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000637:transplantation; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000637:transplantation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011859:Radiography; D012086:Reoperation; D016019:Survival Analysis