The meniscus root tears are a specific type of the meniscal injury, and recently, received more and more attention of researchers. The meniscal root tears either are defined as an avulsion of the insertion of the meniscus attachment or the complete radial tears,located within 1 cm of the meniscus insertion. Biomechanical studies show that the meniscal root injuries interrupt the continuity of the circumferential fibers, and hence lead to failure of the normal meniscal function of converting the axial loads into the transverse hoop stresses. The meniscal root tears can be classified into 5 groups based on the tear morphology. The treatments of the meniscal root tears include the nonoperative therapy, the partial meniscectomy, and the meniscal root repair. The repair techniques have better clinic outcomes and become a research focus recently, including the transtibial pullout technique, the suture anchor repair and the anatomic reinforced medial meniscal root reconstruction with gracilis autograft. As a new technique for treatment of the osteoarthritis of Knee varus, the meniscus posterior root tear repair is combined with a high tibial osteotomy. In this review, we focus on the advances of the anatomy, the biomechanics, the classification system, and the treatment methods for the treatment of posterior meniscal root tears.

lateral meniscus  /  medial meniscus  /  meniscus root tear  /  root repair