Purpose

Successful outcomes of meniscal allograft transplantation are dependent on adequate size matching of donor and patient meniscus. The extent that donor pools meet the demands of the patient pool is unknown. The purpose of this study was to analyze the variability in meniscus size and anthropometric data between donors (supply) and patients (demand), and determine the impact on time to match.

Methods and Materials

Lateral and medial meniscal measurements, sex, patient height and weight, and time to match a donor graft were extracted from a tissue supplier database. Distributions of meniscus size for patient and donor pools were analyzed. Body Mass Index (BMI), meniscus area, body mass to meniscus area index (BMMI), and height to meniscus area index (HMI) were compared via chi-square tests and independent samples t-test. The effect of size on time to match was analyzed using ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey test.

Results

The distributions of meniscus sizes were significantly different for meniscus donor and patient populations (Fig1A-D). The lateral meniscus patients showed a higher frequency of larger size meniscus and the medial meniscus patients showed a higher frequency of smaller size meniscus. The lateral meniscus analysis showed significantly greater meniscus area and increased average height in the patient population. The medial meniscus analysis showed significantly smaller meniscus areas in the patient population contributing to an increased BMMI and HMI. The time to match a donor meniscus was affected by the patient meniscus size.

Figure 1: Distribution of donor (blue) and patient (gray) meniscus sizes.

Conclusion

This analysis demonstrates variations in frequency of meniscus sizes between donor and patient populations. This variation is attributed to significant differences in anthropometric data between patient and donor populations. This work identifies a mismatch between demand and supply. Areas of size mismatch were further substantiated by the longer time period to identify a donor match.