Return to Sports and Failure Rate After Arthroscopic Repair of Bucket-Handle Meniscus Tears: A Minimum Twentyfour Month Follow-Up

Authors

  • Tomás A. Esteves Servicio de Ortopedia y Traumatología, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4092-8562
  • Ignacio Astore Servicio de Ortopedia y Traumatología, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Argentina
  • Carlos Yacuzzi Servicio de Ortopedia y Traumatología, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Argentina
  • Matías Costa-Paz Servicio de Ortopedia y Traumatología, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Argentina
  • Juan P. Zícaro Servicio de Ortopedia y Traumatología, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7268-741X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63403/re.v32i1.379

Keywords:

Bucket-handle meniscus tear, meniscal repair, meniscal tear, return to sports, failure rate

Abstract

Introduction: the failure rate reported in the literature following bucket-handle meniscus repair is approximately 19%. The objective was to describe the failure rate and  return to sports in patients after surgery for buckethandle
meniscus repair.

Materials and methods: this is a retrospective case series.  Patients who underwent bucket-handle meniscus repair between January 2016 and April 2024 were included. Demographic data, surgical details, return to sports, and reoperation (failure) rates were analyzed in patients with a minimum follow-up of 24 months.

Results: a total of sixty-three patients were evaluated, fifty-five of whom were men (87.3%), with a mean age of 27.9 years (SD 9.5) and a mean BMI of 24.5 (SD 3.8). The average follow-up period was 38.5 months. The median number of sutures per surgery was 7 (IQR 25-75= 5-9). Of all operated patients, 88.9% returned to sports. The preoperative Lysholm score was 36.3 (SD 21.4), and at the end of follow-up, it improved to 95.4 (SD 5.19), showing a significant difference (p <0.05). The overall failure rate was 9.5% (n=6), with no correlation with gender, BMI, affected meniscus, or number of sutures.

Conclusion: although success rates are encouraging, it is evident that outcomes depend on multiple technical and
patient-related variables. Therefore, we consider careful selection of the patients, the number of stitches and the information given to patients about failure to be essential for optimizing results in bucket-handle meniscus repair.

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Published

2025-04-01

How to Cite

1.
Esteves TA, Astore I, Yacuzzi C, Costa-Paz M, Zícaro JP. Return to Sports and Failure Rate After Arthroscopic Repair of Bucket-Handle Meniscus Tears: A Minimum Twentyfour Month Follow-Up. RELART [Internet]. 2025 Apr. 1 [cited 2026 May 1];32(1):13-9. Available from: https://revistarelart.com/index.php/revista/article/view/379

Issue

Vol. 32 No. 1 (2025): RELART

Section

Original article

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Copyright (c) 2025 Tomás A. Esteves, Ignacio Astore, Carlos Yacuzzi, Matías Costa-Paz, Juan P. Zícaro

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This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The authors retain the copyright.