ReviewOrthopaedic journal of sports medicine2025
Postoperative Rehabilitation Protocol After Isolated Meniscal Repair: A Systematic Review.
Review in Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The meniscus plays a critical role in knee stability and load distribution, with meniscal tears often resulting from trauma or degeneration. Rehabilitation protocols after meniscal repair lack standardization, particularly regarding weightbearing restrictions and their effect on outcomes. Hypothesis/Purpose: This systematic review hypothesizes that accelerated weightbearing protocols after isolated meniscal repair would lead to improved patient-reported outcomes and comparable failure rates relative to restricted rehabilitation protocols. The purpose was to evaluate the influence of different postoperative rehabilitation strategies on failure rates and functional outcomes after isolated meniscal repair. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Comprehensive searches of Embase, OVID Medline, and Emcare databases were conducted through November 2024. Studies were included if they reported on adult patients undergoing arthroscopic repair for isolated meniscal tears, described postoperative rehabilitation protocols, and had ≥10 months of follow-up. The primary outcome was repair failure (retears, revision surgery, or persistent symptoms). Secondary outcomes included patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and postoperative complications. Descriptive statistics summarized findings, with discrepancies resolved by a third investigator. Results: Ten studies (n = 313 patients) met the inclusion criteria. Most tears were medial (62%-93%) and primarily vertical or longitudinal, located in vascular zones. Rehabilitation protocols included accelerated/immediate weightbearing as tolerated (WBAT) (n = 7 studies), restricted weightbearing (n = 5 studies), and modified progressive programs (n = 1 study). Failure rates were 24.1% (accelerated WBAT), 28.3% (restricted), and 4.3% (modified progressive). PROMs (Lysholm and Tegner scores) were generally higher in accelerated WBAT protocols, with scores exceeding 85 and 7.2, respectively. Modified progressive rehabilitation yielded the lowest failure rate (4.3%) and favorable PROMs in the 1 study that utilized this method. Conclusion: The relationship between meniscal tear characteristics, repair techniques, and postoperative rehabilitation protocols plays a pivotal role in determining outcomes after isolated meniscal repair. Accelerated rehabilitation protocols may offer benefits such as faster recovery and improved patient satisfaction; nonetheless, they must be balanced against the increased risk of repair failure, particularly in complex tear patterns. Individualized rehabilitation protocols, accounting for tear characteristics, patient health, and surgical techniques, may optimize outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.