Researchers have revealed that patients with torn knee ligaments and meniscal cartilage will have a short term benefit by surgery. However, it does not stop the ultimate development of osteoarthiritis.

The study was conducted on 326 patients for a period of 10 years. The researchers discovered that radiographic findings soon after the first knee injury strongly envisaged the long term medical course, with no considerable difference visualized between those who had the surgery and those who did not have it.

MD, of Leiden University in the Netherlands, Kasper Huetink disclosed that whether the treatment was undertaken or not, there was development of localized knee osteoarthritis.

The disease developed from anterior cruciate ligament and meniscal injuries, which were found in magnetic resonance imaging, conducted 10 years ago in patients having symptoms of subacute knee.

The study discovered that there was a considerably high risk for common features of osteoarthritis in patients who had tears in ACL as well as meniscal ruptures as compared to those patients who had different type of knee injuries. These features include cartilage or bone marrow lesions, joint space narrowing and/or osteophytes.

Huetink and colleagues recommended that biomechanical loading, which occurs due to ligament or meniscal ruptures, were responsible for certain patterns of osteoarthritis findings seen in the sample.