Arthroscopic Debridement in Osteoarthritis of the Knee

Sohn, Jong Min; Kim, Hyoung Gwan; Cho, Woo Sin

Abstract

A retrospective review was performed in 33 knees of 30 patients who had undergone arthroscopic debridement for degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee. The mean age of the patients at operation was 55 years and the mean follow-up after operation was 15 months. We divided the knec:s into 2 groups; meniscectomy group (23 knees) and non-meniscectomy group (10 knees). The preoperative radiographic findings were divided into 3 groups according to the classification systern by Lotke et al. The postoperative results were evaluated using the nine-point scale by Baumgaertner et al. Our study was conducted to: 1) assess the overall efficacy of arthroscopic debridement, 2) compare the results between the. Meniscectomy group and nonmeniscectomy group, and 3) identify the relationship between the preoperative radiographic findings and out- come at the final follow-up time. Overall excellent or good results were ac.hieved in 22 knees (67%) and the preoperative radiographic findings correlated with the outcome at the final follow-up time. But the results in the meniscectomy and non-meniscectomy poups showed no significant differences statistically. We believe that arthroscopic debridement is an effective option of treatments for mild I:o moderate degenerative arthritis of the knee after failure of conservative measures.