Abstract

Aim. This study aimed to carry out a comparative analysis of the treatment results in patients with plica syndrome of the knee. Methods. A total of 425 patients are contributed in the study done during 2018-2019 (main group) and 2014-2017 (comparison group). The main group was consisted of 205 patients who underwent early arthroscopic surgery as the main treatment. The comparison group was consisted of 220 patients who were prescribed conservative therapy for 3 months as the first stage of treatment; in case of ineffectiveness, arthroscopic diagnostics were performed, followed by surgical correction of the pathology of the synovial plica of the knee. Evaluation of the results was carried out after 1 and 3 months (early and immediate postoperative period), 6 and 12 months (long-term postoperative period), and was based on the data of clinical (complaints and physical examination), instrumental (ultrasound and MRI) examination and test results on the scale Lysholm and a special questionnaire IKDC-2000 by comparing these indicators with the data before and after the surgical treatment of patients. Results. The share of excellent and good long-term results was increased from 80.4% to 92.7%, the frequency of specific complications was reduced from 17.3% to 5.4%. Arthroscopic surgery provided successful therapy in 94.6% of cases in patients with pathological synovial folds of the knee. Long-term rehabilitation of more than 6 months was required in 5.4% (11 out of 205) cases, in particular with recurrent synovitis (7 out of 11; 63.6%), chronic pain in the patellofemoral joint (2 out of 11; 18.2%) and the presence of movement restrictions in the knee joint (2 out of 11; 18.2%). Conclusion. The early use of arthroscopic surgery of pathologically altered synovial folds of the knee joint is accompanied by a positive dynamics of points on the Lysholm scale and the IKDC-2000 questionnaire during treatment and is characterized by the possibility of regression of the intra-articular pathological process with a significant increase in the proportion of excellent and good results in the immediate and late postoperative periods.