The Clinical Study on the Discoid Semilunar Cartilage

The first description on the discoid meniscus was made by Young in 1889 and was known as it affects only the lateral meniscus for a long time. However, Cave and Staples had reported the two cases of discoid changes on medial meniscus in 1941. Smillie(1948) had stated that the menisci exist as cartilagenous discs at an early stage of fetus and remain in discoid shape congenitally. Kaplan(1957) reported that the discoid meniscus is not caused by congenitally but acquired in relation of joint motion. A clinical analysis is made on the 22 discoid meniscus which were removed surgically and summarized as follows: 1. The click sound on walking, tenderness and positive McMurray test were important as diagnostic criteria and were present all of the cases. 2. The most of the discoid meniscus were found in first and second decade in 13 cases(76.5%) out of 22. The five cases were bilateral. 3. The discoid change of the meniscus had no sex defferences in their incidence but lateral involvement were far superior than in ten times. 4. The discoid meniscus shows degenerative change microscopically 17(77.3%). 5. The clinical result of surgical removal of discoid meniscus was satisfactory in resuming their full activities in six weeks.