Radiographic Changes in the Knee After Meniscal Transplantation An Experimental Study in a Sheep Model

Meniscal transplantation has been suggested as an alternative to total meniscectomy, which is now known to lead to long-term osteoarthritic degeneration of the knee joint. To evaluate the success of meniscal trans plantation, we divided 28 sheep knees into 4 groups: total meniscectomy, allograft, autograft, and control. After a mean postoperative time of 21.4 months, we radiographed the excised knee joints in a loaded state and graded the radiographs for osteoarthritic changes. The knees with meniscectomies, allografts, and au tografts showed significantly more degenerative changes than the control knees. However, there were no statistically significant differences between these three groups. The results of this study suggest that meniscal allograft transplantation does not protect the knee against degenerative changes.