To compare the results of two methods of treatment for bucket-handle
tears of the medial meniscus eighty-seven knees were studied, thirty-seven
treated by excision of the bucket-handle tear alone and fifty by total
meniscectomy. A postoperative history suggestive of locking was given by
one patient in each treatment group. Anteroposterior laxity was found in
72% of knees treated by excision of the bucket-handle tear alone as
compared with 68% of the knees treated by total meniscectomy, but in all
other respects the results showed a marginal preference in favor of the
simpler operation. Although the numbers are too small to prove that results
are better following excision of the bucket-handle tear alone, it is
suggested, in the absence of evidence that total meniscectomy is more
advantageous, that the simpler operation of excision of just the
bucket-handle tear is the treatment of choice in bucket-handle tears of the
medial meniscus.