There are few studies assessing the impact of age at time of surgery on meniscus repair failure risk and patient-reported outcome scores. We sought to determine whether age at time of meniscus repair surgery affects failure risk and patient-reported outcome scores.

Patients who underwent meniscus repair during 2006-2013 were evaluated for meniscus repair failure and patient-reported outcome scores using the Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score, and Marx Activity score at mean follow-up 6.5±2.0 yr post-operative. A multivariable linear regression analysis was used to assess the influence of patient age on patient-reported outcome scores following meniscus repair.

A total of 170 patients with mean age 27.8±10.1 yr (59% male) were identified, including 29 patients age 18 and younger and 141 patients over 18. Increasing patient age was associated with significantly lower IKDC (P=0.027), KOOS-ADL (P=0.003), and Marx activity scores (P<0.001). Repair failure occurred in 46 patients (27.1%) overall, including 7 failures (24.1%) in patients 18 and under and 39 failures (27.7%) in patients over 18. The logistic regression analysis demonstrated no association between age and meniscus repair failure risk when controlled for ACL reconstruction and BMI (P=0.69).

Increased age is associated with poorer IKDC, KOOS-ADL, and Marx Activity scores following meniscus repair. However, there is no difference in failure of healing of meniscus repair between adolescent patients and adults.

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