Meniscal Surgery Markedly Increases Risk for Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Loss

Joint pain brings thousands of people to doctors’ offices each year. Surgery is often used as a form a treatment, aimed to fix the underlying cause in hopes to relieve the pain and problem. But what if surgery is instead, predisposing some people to developing osteoarthritis?

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) investigated the relationship of meniscus surgery and the development of knee osteoarthritis and found patients undergoing this procedure developed osteoarthritis (OA) and were at higher risk for cartilage loss as detected on an MRI compared to knees with prevalent meniscal damage but no surgery.

According to the researchers one can postulate that meniscal surgery has deleterious effects on joint structure in knees at risk of developing OA. “The pros and cons of meniscal surgery need to be carefully considered for every patient in order to avoid accelerated disease onset and progression,” explained corresponding author Frank Roemer, MD, co-director of the Quantitative Imaging Center and associate professor of radiology at BUSM.

These findings were presented at the Radiological Society of North American annual meeting held recently in Chicago.