Table 3 Meniscal tear classification [1, 64, 75–78]
From: Reporting knee meniscal tears: technical aspects, typical pitfalls and how to avoid them
Meniscal tear | Vertical | Longitudinal | Incomplete (linear signal changes only involving one meniscal surface) | Stable | Low clinical relevance, not always correlated with symptoms = “leave alone” lesion |
Complete (linear signal changes involve both meniscal surface) | Unstable when meniscocapsular separation is present or in extensive lesion | High clinical relevance | |||
Radial | Without meniscal root involvement | Usually unstable | High clinical relevance | ||
Radial meniscal root tear | |||||
Horizontal or oblique-horizontal | Incomplete (linear signal changes not involving a meniscal surface) | Stable | Low clinical relevance, not always correlated with symptoms = “leave alone” lesion | ||
Complete (linear signal changes involving one or more meniscal surfaces) | Unstable/stable | Different clinical relevance depending on associated lesions, e.g. anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear | |||
Complex | Horizontal and vertical tear, complex linear pattern | Unstable | High clinical relevance | ||
Bucket-handle | |||||
Flap tears (including parrot beak tears) | |||||
Free meniscal fragment | |||||