Isolated peripheral longitudinal tears in the anterior-middle segment of medial meniscus among young soccer players: A case series

Yuta Tachibana; Yoshinari Tanaka; Hiroshi Amano; Kazutaka Kinugasa; Akira Tsujii; Ryohei Uchida; Yoshiki Shiozaki; Shuji Horibe

doi:10.1016/j.ijscr.2021.106630

Isolated peripheral longitudinal tears in the anterior-middle segment of medial meniscus among young soccer players: A case series

Int J Surg Case Rep. 2021 Dec:89:106630. doi: 10.1016/j.ijscr.2021.106630. Epub 2021 Nov 25.

Authors

Yuta Tachibana¹, Yoshinari Tanaka², Hiroshi Amano², Kazutaka Kinugasa², Akira Tsujii³, Ryohei Uchida⁴, Yoshiki Shiozaki⁵, Shuji Horibe⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sports Orthopaedics, Osaka Rosai Hospital, Sakai, Japan. Electronic address: yuta-tachibana@umin.org.
² Department of Sports Orthopaedics, Osaka Rosai Hospital, Sakai, Japan.
³ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
⁴ Department of Sports Orthopaedics, Kansai Rosai Hospital, Amagasaki, Japan.
⁵ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Seifu Hospital, Sakai, Japan.
⁶ Faculty of Comprehensive Rehabilitation, Osaka Prefecture University, Habikino, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction: There was little information about the isolated medial meniscal tears in the anterior-middle segment. This study aimed to report the infrequent cases of the isolated medial meniscal tears in the anterior-middle segment related to kicking motion among young soccer players with a short-term postoperative outcome.

Presentation of case: In the retrospective review of the surgical records from 2000 to 2018, there were 15 cases with the corresponding tear. They were all young male soccer players with a mean age of 16.7 years (range: 10-23 years). The cause of injury was kicking motion during playing soccer in all the patients. The most frequent symptom was locking in 80% of the cases. In the arthroscopic evaluation, all the cases presented with a longitudinal (bucket-handle) tear in the anterior-middle segment in the peripheral zone with a length of 25 to 30 mm, while the posterior segment and the cruciate ligaments were intact. Meniscal repair was performed for all the cases. At one year, all the patients could return to play soccer with a pre-injury level without any symptoms. In the second-look arthroscopy at six months among four cases, all meniscal tears healed completely.

Discussion and conclusion: Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of isolated peripheral longitudinal tear in the anterior-middle segment of the medial meniscus, which is related to the kicking motion among young soccer players and mainly causes locking.

Keywords: Anterior–middle segment; Isolated medial meniscal tear; Kicking motion; Longitudinal tear; Soccer.