When can exercise supplant surgery for degenerative meniscal tears? PRACTICE CHANGER: Recommend supervised exercise therapy to your patients with a medial, degenerative meniscal tear and a minimal history of osteoarthritis because it is as effective as partial meniscectomy, entails little risk, and has the added benefit of increasing muscle strength. Stength of recommendation: B: Based on a single, good quality, randomized controlled trial

Jarrett, Jennie B.

Sauereisen, Sandra

University of Missouri: MOspace

250 THE JOURNAL OF FAMILY PRACTICE  |   APRIL 2017  |   VOL 66, NO 4Priority Updates from the Research Literature from the Family Physicians Inquiries NetworkPURLs®Jennie B. Jarrett, PharmD, BCPS, MMedEd; Sandra Sauereisen, MD, MPHUniversity of Illinois at  Chicago (Dr. Jarrett);  University of Pittsburgh Medical Center St.  Margaret Family Medicine  Residency Program, Pa (Dr. Sauereisen)D E P U T Y  E D I T O RCorey Lyon, DOUniversity of Colorado Family Medicine Residency, DenverWhen can exercise supplant surgery for degenerative meniscal tears? Patients with a medial, degenerative meniscal tear and a minimal history of osteoarthritis make good candidates for physical therapy—and there is an added benefit, too. PRACTICE CHANGERRecommend supervised exercise therapy to your patients with a medial, degenera-tive meniscal tear and a minimal history of osteoarthritis because it is as effective as partial meniscectomy, entails little risk, and has the added benefit of increasing muscle strength.1 STRENGTH OF RECOMMENDATIONB: Based on a single, good quality, random-ized controlled trial. Kise NJ, Risberg MA, Stensrud S, et al. Exercise therapy versus ar-throscopic partial meniscectomy for degenerative meniscal tear in middle aged patients: randomised controlled trial with two year fol-low-up. BMJ. 2016;354:i3740. ILLUSTRATIVE CASEA 48-year-old man presents to your office for follow-up of right knee pain that has been bothering him for the last 12 months. He denies any trauma or inciting incident for the pain. On physical exam, he does not have crepitus, but has medial joint line tenderness of his right knee. A magnetic resonance image (MRI) shows a partial, medial meniscal tear. Do you refer him to Physical Therapy (PT) or Orthopedics for arthroscopy and repair?The meniscus—cartilage in the knee joint that provides support, stabil-ity, and lubrication to the joint dur-ing activity—can tear during a traumatic event or because of degeneration over time. Traumatic meniscal tears typically happen to younger adults and teens (<30 years of age) during sports, such as basketball and soccer, whereas degenerative meniscal tears gener-ally present in patients ages 40 to 60 years.2,3 The annual incidence of all meniscal tears is 79 per 100,000.4 While some physicians can diagnose traumatic meniscal tears based on history and physical examination, degenera-tive meniscal tears are generally more chal-lenging, and typically warrant an MRI for confirmation.3Meniscal tears can be treated either con-servatively, with supportive care and exer-cise, or with surgery. Unfortunately, there are no national orthopedic guidelines available to help direct care. In one observational study of surgery as treatment for both traumatic and degenerative meniscal tears, 95 out of 117 patients (81.2%) were generally satis-fied with this treatment at the 4-year follow-up, with higher satisfaction in the traumatic meniscal tear group than in the degenerative tear group.5 Two systematic reviews of surgery vs nonoperative management or sham thera-pies found no additional benefit of surgery for meniscal tears in a variety of patients with and without osteoarthritis.6,7 However, both studies were of only moderate quality because of the number of patients in the nonoperative groups who ultimately 251JFPONLINE.COM VOL 66, NO 4  |  APRIL 2017  |  THE JOURNAL OF FAMILY PRACTICEobtained surgery. And neither of the studies directly compared surgery to nonoperative management.6,7 Yet another investigation, a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, sham- controlled study conducted in Finland involving 146 patients, compared sham sur-gery to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Both groups received instruction on per-forming post-procedure exercises, and both groups had similar and marked improvement in pain and function.8 ❚ Clinical practice recommendations devised from a systematic and vast review of the literature recommend that the decision for surgery be based on patient-specific fac-tors such as symptoms, age, mechanism of tear, extent of damage, and occupational/- social/activity needs.9 STUDY SUMMARYExercise is as good as—and in one way, better than—surgery The current randomized controlled supe-riority trial compared exercise therapy to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in patients ages 35 to 60 years presenting to the orthopedic departments of 2 hospitals in Norway with unilateral knee pain for more than 2 months and an MRI-delineated medial meniscal tear. Patients were included only if they had radiographic evidence of minimal osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence classification grade ≤2). Exclusion criteria were acute trauma, locked knee, ligament injury, and knee surgery in the same knee within the previous 2 years. ❚ The primary outcomes were change in patient-reported knee function as deter-mined by overall knee injury and osteoarthri-tis outcome score (KOOS4) after 2 years and thigh muscle strength at 3 months as mea-sured by physiotherapists. The KOOS4 con-sists of 4 out of the 5 KOOS subscales: pain, other symptoms (swelling, grinding/noise from the joint, ability to straighten and bend), function in sports/recreation, and knee- related quality of life (QOL). This study uti-lized the average score of each subscale. ❚ Secondary outcomes were the 5 in-dividual KOOS subscales (the 4 previously mentioned plus activities of daily living [ADLs]), as well as thigh muscle strength and lower extremity performance test results. ❚ Methods. Testing personnel were blinded to group allocation; participants wore pants or neoprene sleeves to cover sur-gical scars. A total of 140 patients were ran-domized to either 12 weeks (24-36 sessions) of exercise therapy alone or a standardized arthroscopic partial meniscectomy with writ-ten and oral encouragement upon discharge to perform simple exercises at home 2 to 4 times daily (to regain range of motion and reduce swelling). ❚ Results. The overall mean improve-ment in KOOS4 score from baseline at 2 years was similar between the exercise group and the meniscectomy group (25.3 points vs 24.4 points, respectively; mean difference [MD], 0.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], -4.3 to 6.1; P=.72). Additionally, muscle strength (measured as peak torque flexion and extension and total work flexion and extension) at both 3 and 12 months showed significant objective improvements favoring exercise therapy. Secondary outcomes comparing the change from baseline of KOOS subscale scores showed 4 of the 5 having non- significant differences (pain, ADL, sports/- recreation, and QOL). Only the symptoms subscale had a significant difference favoring exercise therapy (MD, 5.3 points; 95% CI, 0.5 to 10.2; P=.03), which was likely clinically insig-nificant when using a grading scale of 0 to 100. Of those patients allocated to exercise therapy alone, 19% crossed over and under-went surgery during the 2 years of the study.WHAT’S NEWHead-to-head comparison  adds evidence to previous findingsThis is the first trial to directly compare exercise therapy to surgery in patients with meniscal tears. Interestingly, exercise ther-apy was as effective after a 2-year follow-up period and was superior in the short term for thigh muscle strength.1 The results of this study build on those from the smaller study conducted in Finland mentioned earlier.8 In that study, both groups received instruction Exercise therapy was as effective as surgery after a 2-year  follow-up period and was  superior in the short term for thigh  muscle strength. 252 THE JOURNAL OF FAMILY PRACTICE  |   APRIL 2017  |   VOL 66, NO 4PURLs®for the same graduated exercise plan. The researchers found that exercise was compa-rable to surgery for meniscal tears in patients with no osteoarthritis.CAVEATSResults may not translate to those  with more severe osteoarthritisThis trial included patients with only mild to no osteoarthritis in addition to their meniscal tear.1 It is unclear if the results would be maintained in patients with more advanced disease. Additionally, 19% of pa-tients crossed over from the exercise group to the surgery group, even though muscle strength improved. Therefore, education about the risks of surgery and the potential lack of benefit is important. CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTATIONThe cost and effort of physical  therapy may be a deterrentThe cost of PT can be a barrier for some patients who have adequate insurance cover-age for surgery, but inadequate coverage for PT. Additionally, exercise therapy requires significant and ongoing amounts of time and effort, which may be a deterrent for patients with busy lifestyles. Patients and physicians may view surgery as an “easier” fix.                   JFPACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe PURLs Surveillance System was supported in part by Grant Number UL1RR024999 from the National Center For Research Resources, a Clinical Translational Science Award to the University of Chicago. The content is solely the responsi-bility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center For Research Resources or the National Institutes of Health.Copyright © 2017. The Family Physicians Inquiries Network. All rights reserved. References  1.   Kise NJ, Risberg MA, Stensrud S, et al. Exercise therapy versus ar-throscopic partial meniscectomy for degenerative meniscal tear in middle aged patients: randomised controlled trial with two year follow-up. BMJ. 2016;354:i3740.  2.   Beals CT, Magnussen RA, Graham WC, et al. The prevalence of meniscal pathology in asymptomatic athletes. Sports Med. 2016;46:1517-1524. 3.   Maffulli N, Longo UG, Campi S, et al. Meniscal tears. Open Access J Sports Med. 2010;1:45-54. 4.   Peat G, Bergknut C, Frobell R, et al. Population-wide incidence estimates for soft tissue knee injuries presenting to healthcare in southern Sweden: data from the Skåne Healthcare Register. Ar-thritis Res Ther. 2014;16:R162. 5.   Ghislain NA, Wei JN, Li YG. Study of the clinical outcome between traumatic and degenerative (non-traumatic) meniscal tears after arthroscopic surgery: a 4-years follow-up study. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016;10:RC01-RC04. 6.   Khan M, Evaniew N, Bedi A, et al. Arthroscopic surgery for de-generative tears of the meniscus: a systematic review and meta-analysis. CMAJ. 2014;186:1057-1064.  7.   Monk P, Garfjeld Roberts P, Palmer AJR, et al. The urgent need for evidence in arthroscopic meniscal surgery: a systematic review of the evidence for operative management of meniscal tears. Am J Sports Med. 2016;pii: 0363546516650180. [Epub ahead of print] 8.   Sihvonen R, Paavola M, Malmivaara A, et al; Finnish Degenera-tive Meniscal Lesion Study (FIDELITY) Group. Arthroscopic par-tial meniscectomy versus sham surgery for a degenerative menis-cal tear. N Engl J Med. 2013;369:2515-2524. 9.   Beaufils P, Hulet C, Dhénain M, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for the management of meniscal lesions and isolated lesions of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee in adults. Orthop Trau-matol Surg Res. 2009;95:437-442.

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