Relevance of history of injury to the diagnosis of meniscal tears.

A consecutive series of 217 arthroscopic meniscectomies has been reviewed in order to investigate the incidence of significant meniscal lesions without obvious precipitating injury. There were 10 bucket handle tears out of 117 (9%) with a mean age of 32 years with no significant injury; 18 flap tears out of 69 (26%) with a mean age of 40 years; and 7 out of 19 (37%) radial tears with a mean age of 36 years also had no significant injury. This study indicates that the absence of a history of injury in the young patient with a symptomatic knee does not exclude significant meniscal tears, such as a bucket handle, and therefore has implications for history taking and diagnosis.