Walk It Off: Exercise Therapy for Meniscal Tears on Par With Surgery — Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy Takes Another Hit

By James Lopilato

Exercise-based physical therapy remained noninferior to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy for treating degenerative meniscal tears, according to longer-term data from the ESCAPE trial, suggesting physical therapy be the preferred treatment over surgery.

By the 5-year mark, patient-reported knee function after 16 sessions of physical therapy was non-inferior to that observed after surgery, with a between-group difference of 3.5 points on the 100-point International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (95% CI 0.7-6.3, P<0.001 for noninferiority) on intention-to-treat analysis, according to movement scientist Julia Noorduyn, MSc, from OLVG Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues.

Read Full Article