Mechanical Symptoms and Meniscal Tear: A Reappraisal.

Summary Objective To identify and summarize literature related to the association between mechanical symptoms (catching and locking of the knee), the presence of meniscal tear, and outcomes after arthroscopic surgery. Design We searched PubMed and hand-searched reference lists for relevant articles and selected 38 for analysis. Results Mechanical symptoms appear to have modest sensitivity (ranging 0.32-0.69), specificity (ranging 0.45-0.74) and positive predictive value (ranging 0.75-0.81) for meniscal tear. There is also very little evidence to suggest that those with mechanical symptoms experience better outcomes after arthroscopic surgery. Conclusion Our examination of the literature does not support the hypothesis that mechanical symptoms are related to the presence of meniscal tear or portend better outcomes after arthroscopic surgery.