DEMAND - DEgenerative Meniscal Tears - Arthroscopy vs. Dedicated Exercise

NCT02113280 · Status: WITHDRAWN · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Last updated 2020-09-10

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Patients with wear and tear in their knees (osteoarthritis) are often referred to orthopaedic surgeons following a sudden worsening of pain and mechanical symptoms (grinding, locking, giving way) in their knee due to tears of their meniscal cartilages. These tears are described as degenerative as they are not usually caused by a single injury but rather accumulation of wear and tear. It is not clear from the current available evidence what the best treatment for these patients is. Their underlying arthritis is not bad enough to require joint replacement yet and they were usually managing well with minimal problems from their knee until experiencing the meniscal tear. However, some of their symptoms are likely to be due to the arthritis rather than just the tear. Current treatment for these patients is usually in the form of conservative treatment with physiotherapy and supervised exercise or using arthroscopy (key-hole surgery) to trim the damaged area of the meniscus. We know from previous research that most of these patients will improve over time to some extent but it is not clear whether a greater improvement can be expected following surgery and if so, whether this applies to all patients with this problem or not.

Our study is intended to compare the outcome of patients with proven degenerative meniscal tears imaged on MRI scans, when they are assigned to arthroscopy followed by supervised exercise or supervised exercise alone. They will be randomly assigned and the outcome will be assessed using patient-completed questionnaires (Knee Outcome Osteoarthritis and injury Score \[KOOS\], SF12, visual analogue score for pain) and whether the patients go on to require further surgery during the period of the trial. The patients will be assessed at baseline, at 6 weeks, 6 months, 12 months and 24 months.

Conditions

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Arthroscopy

Patients to receive knee arthroscopy and meniscal debridement

PROCEDURE

Physiotherapy

Outpatient standardised physiotherapy regime with focus on exercise therapy

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
45 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2015-12-31
Primary Completion
2018-12-31
Completion
2018-12-31

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02113280 on ClinicalTrials.gov