To compare the clinical effects of arthroscopic menisci reformation and total meniscectomy in the treatment of discoid meniscus injuries.

Sixty-eight patients of meniscus injury were selected from August 2014 to August 2016 in the Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, who were divided into group A (25 cases) and group B (43 cases) according to the different operation methods. Group A adopted arthroscopic total meniscectomy; group B adopted arthroscopic menisci reformation. The Lysholm score, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) score, MRI reexamination and complications were observed and compared by t test or χ² test between the two groups after three months.

The incision of two-group patients healed at grade I. The excellent rate of meniscus in group A (64%) was lower than that in group B (79.06%), and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=12.84, P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference of Lysholm scores before the operation between the two groups (P>0.05); the Lysholm scores after the operation at three months in group A and group B [(77±16) and (93±19)] were all higher than those before the operation [(56±12) and (66±14)] (t=4.541, 5.231, P<0.05). The postoperoctive Lysholm score of group B was higher than that of group A, the difference was statistically significant (t=5.132, P<0.01). The total HSS scores (88.0±2.3) points in group B three months after the operation were higher than those of group A (71.2±2.0) points, the differences were all statistically significant (t=3.707, P<0.05), while there was no statistically significant difference in pain or myodynamia scores between the two groups (P>0.05). Both groups healed well, without obvious complications, such as infection or deep venous thrombosi. MRI evaluation showed that the rate of complete healing in group B was higher than that in group A, and in group A there were two cases of degenerative joint disease.

Both operation methods have good short-term effect, but menisci reformation can restore the function of knee joint to the greatest extent and reduce the complications such as degeneration of knee joint, which is better than total meniscectomy.