Background: Extensor mechanism rupture (EMR) of the knee is a rare but potentially debilitating injury that often occurs due to trauma. While a wide variety of surgical treatments have been reported, there is currently no consensus on the most successful treatment method. The timing of post-operative joint mobilization is also critical for successful recovery after EMR repair. Despite the traditional method of complete immobilization for 6 weeks, there is an increasing trend towards early post-operative knee mobilization. The purpose of this network meta-analysis was to compare adverse event rates and function outcomes between repair methods and between post-operative mobilization protocols.
Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central electronic databases were searched in August 2016 for observational studies involving repair of acute, traumatic EMRs. Data extraction included functional outcomes, adverse events, and additional surgeries. Cohort studies that were used in functional outcome analysis were assessed for risk of bias by the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS).
Results: Twenty-three studies (709 patients) were included for adverse event analysis. There were no significant differences in adverse event or additional surgery rates between EMR repair methods However, early mobilization produced significantly higher adverse event rates (p=0.02) and total event rates (p<0.001) than late mobilization, but the difference in additional surgery rates was not significant (p=0.06). Six studies (85 patients) were included for functional outcome analysis. There were no significant differences in thigh girth atrophy or muscle strength compared to the contralateral leg between patients treated with transosseous drill holes and simple end-to-end sutures.
Conclusions: We performed the first network meta-analysis to date comparing treatment of EMRs. Our results support the current body of knowledge that there is no single superior repair method. Although there is an increasing trend towards early or immediate post-operative knee mobilization, we found that early mobilization is associated with significantly higher adverse event and total event rates compared to fixed immobilization for a minimum of 6 weeks, implicating an increased financial burden and decreased quality of life associated with early post-operative mobilization.
Keywords: Adverse events; Extensor mechanism rupture; Mobilization; Patellar tendon rupture; Quadriceps tendon rupture; Rehabilitation.
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