Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis After Meniscus Injury

It is well known that a traumatic meniscus injury is very likely to lead to early knee joint osteoarthritis (OA). Conversely, it is also accepted that the probability of suffering from a torn meniscus increases with age, ultimately resulting in the natural degeneration of the knee joint. On the contrary, it has not been described to what extent abnormal biological processes or altered biomechanical conditions in the knee, either congenital or resulting from meniscus injury, contribute to the development of knee osteoarthritis. Martin Englund (Professor of Orthopaedics, Lund University, Sweden) put it best when he said: “A meniscal tear can lead to knee osteoarthritis, but knee osteoarthritis can also lead to a meniscal tear”.

This Research Topic is focusing on the chicken-or-egg problem of whether a traumatic meniscus injury leads to premature gonarthrosis or vice versa. Through interdisciplinary and complementary research approaches, the superior aim is to improve the basic understanding of these interconnected entities in order to develop new, innovative therapeutic approaches that will significantly improve patients' short and long-term outcomes. Although the goal of this collection is on enabling and preparing the biomechanical aspects that still need to be resolved, in time the results and thoughts from the collection can be considered together with analyses into the biological response which might be critical for solving the issues posed.

In this Research Topic, we welcome the following topics:

• In general, the focus of all submissions should be mainly biomechanical, although some clinical aspects or context can be brought in.
• Review articles identifying the most recent advances in the field of meniscus-trauma induced osteoarthritis.
• State-of-the-art in-vivo and/or in-vitro studies enlightening the basic understanding of the connection between meniscus trauma and its impact on short- and long-term patient outcomes.
• Innovative papers focusing on different regenerative-based approaches to optimize treatments for patients suffering from meniscus-tear induced knee pain.
• Multiscale in-silico approaches using the latest technology to shed light on e.g. risk factors for meniscus injuries, early detection of OA using different imaging techniques, AI or other automatization techniques which allow for an improved meniscus tear or early OA detection
• Clinical studies/trials, which are able to close the knowledge gap between basic research questions regarding meniscus-trauma induced OA (or vice-versa) and patient outcomes.
• Please bear in mind that clinical studies addressing only a small biomechanical element would not be appropriate for this biomechanically oriented collection.

Drs. Donahue and Patel both hold patents. Drs. Patel and Drews also are paid consultants for NovoPedics Inc and Arthrex GmbH respectively. All other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.