Association Between Increased Posterior Tibial Slope and Isolated Meniscal Tears in Patients Aged 18–30 Years
TL;DR
In this retrospective cohort of young adults, an increased posterior tibial slope was associated with isolated meniscal tears and should be regarded as a supportive morphological marker rather than a stand-alone diagnostic metric.
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Meniscal tears frequently occur during athletic activities and are often associated with anterior cruciate ligament injuries. The purpose of this study was to compare the posterior tibial slope (PTS) in young adults undergoing arthroscopic surgery for isolated meniscal tears with that of a control group, and to investigate its association with meniscal tears. Methods: This retrospective, single-centre, controlled study included 190 patients aged 18–30 years who presented with unilateral knee pain and underwent knee magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) between 2015 and 2022. Patients with an isolated medial meniscal tear (Group A, n = 67) or an isolated lateral meniscal tear (Group B, n = 31), confirmed on MRI and directly with arthroscopy, were compared with a symptomatic control group who presented with knee pain but had no meniscal or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear on MRI (Group C, n = 92). Medial and lateral PTS angles were measured on pre-existing standing lateral knee radiographs. Interobserver and intraobserver reliability were quantified using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Group comparisons, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis with the Youden index, and multivariable binary logistic regression adjusted for age, sex and side were performed. Results: Both medial and lateral PTS angles were significantly higher in Groups A and B than in the control group (p < 0.05). ROC analysis identified a cut-off of 9.2° for the medial PTS in the medial-tear group (AUC: 0.756, 95% CI: 0.68–0.83; sensitivity: 64.18%, specificity: 80.43%) and 9.9° for the lateral PTS in the lateral-tear group (AUC: 0.709, 95% CI: 0.60–0.82; sensitivity: 58.06%, specificity: 81.52%). The association persisted after adjustment for age, sex and side (medial slope in medial tears adjusted OR: 1.36 per 1°, 95% CI: 1.19–1.55, p < 0.001; lateral slope in lateral tears adjusted OR: 1.25 per 1°, 95% CI: 1.08–1.44, p = 0.003). Conclusions: In this retrospective cohort of young adults, an increased posterior tibial slope was associated with isolated meniscal tears. A medial PTS greater than 9.2° and a lateral PTS greater than 9.9° were associated with medial and lateral meniscal tears, respectively. Given the modest sensitivity and the observational design, PTS should be regarded as a supportive morphological marker rather than a stand-alone diagnostic metric, and a causal relationship cannot be inferred based on the results of this study. Because discrimination was only fair (AUC 0.693–0.756) and sensitivity limited (54.8–64.2%), these cut-offs are not clinically applicable decision thresholds and should be used only in conjunction with clinical assessment and MRI.