Abstract
Objectives:
(1) To determine whether intraoperative PRP affects meniscus repair failure risk. (2) To determine whether the effect of PRP on meniscus failure risk is influenced by ACL reconstruction status or by PRP preparation.
Methods:
550 patients (mean age 28.8 years SD 11.3) who underwent meniscus repair surgery with PRP (n=203 total, n=148 prepared with GPS III system, n=55 Angel system) or without PRP (n=347) and with (n=399) or without (n=151) concurrent ACL reconstruction were assessed for meniscus repair failure within 3 years. The independent effect of PRP on meniscus repair failure risk was determined by multivariate Cox proportional hazards modeling with adjustment for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), ACL status, tear pattern, tear vascularity, repair technique, side (medial or lateral) and number of sutures or implants utilized.
Results:
Failures within 3 years occurred in 17.0% of patients without PRP and 14.7% of patients with PRP (p=0.52) (Angel PRP: 14.6%; GPS III PRP: 12.0%; p=0.59). Increased patient age was protective against meniscus failure regardless of ACL or PRP status (per 5-year increase in age: adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR] 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.81, 1.0; p=0.047). The effect of PRP on meniscus failure risk was dependent upon concomitant ACL injury status (Figure). Among isolated meniscus repairs (20.3% failures at 3 years), PRP was independently associated with lower risk of failure (aHR 0.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.03, 0.59; p=0.002) with no difference between PRP vendors (p=0.84). Among meniscus repairs with concomitant ACLR (14.1% failures at 3 years), PRP was not independently associated with risk of failure (aHR 1.39 CI 0.81, 2.36; p=0.23) with no difference between PRP venders (p=0.78).
Conclusion:
Both PRP preparations utilized in the current study had a substantial protective effect on isolated meniscus repair failure risk over 3 years. In the setting of concomitant ACL reconstruction, intraoperative PRP does not reduce meniscus repair failure risk.
Survival plot of meniscal repairs by PRP and ACLR status. Meniscus repair survival significantly differed between groups (p=0.003, Wilcoxon rank-sum). Use of PRP resulted in improved survival of isolated meniscus repairs (p=0.008) but had no effect on survival of meniscus repairs with concomitant ACLR (p=0.28).