title: Arthroscopic combined medial and lateral meniscus transplantation after double-tunnel, double-bundle anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in the same knee.
abstract: Meniscus transplantation in combination with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction has been used in the treatment of patients with meniscus and ACL deficiency. However, there have been no reports of arthroscopic surgery and the outcome of both medial and lateral meniscus allograft transplantation after double-tunnel, double-bundle ACL reconstruction. Herein, we report the case of a young male who received arthroscopic lateral and medial meniscectomy and ACL tibialis allograft reconstruction performed with the double-tunnel and double-bundle technique approximately 8 months after a knee injury. Approximately 4 months postoperatively he began to experience pain and weakness in the operated knee and subsequently underwent arthroscopic lateral and medial meniscus allograft transplantation in the same procedure. Second-look arthroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging revealed the meniscal allografts to have normal shape and the ACL grafts to be relatively intact at 18 and 30 months after surgery. His knee appeared stable and the range of motion was normal. Our hypothesis was that knee stability could reliably be restored with this combined procedure and the meniscal grafts and ACL graft could provide protection for each other. We suggest that medial and lateral meniscus allografts for one patient should be from the same donor. In the operation, attention must be paid to the direction of the bone tunnels used to fix the horns of the meniscal grafts to avoid communication with other tunnels in the tibial plateau.
authors.affiliation: The Orthopaedic Institute, Department of Orthopaedics, the First Affiliated Hospital of (304th Hospital) of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China. drzyd@126.com
authors.forename: Ya-Dong
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shu-Xun
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Yi-Chao
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Dian-Zhong
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Hong-Bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D059549:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction; D001182:Arthroscopy; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000637:transplantation*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D012086:Reoperation; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult