Letter to Editor: Editorial: Appropriate Use? Guidelines on Arthroscopic Surgery for Degenerative Meniscus Tears Need Updating.

We read your editorial with great interest and agree with your conclusions that the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons guidelines and its accompanying appropriate-use criteria need to be updated. Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy is the most frequently performed orthopaedic procedure. Its indication is not always perfectly defined, particularly when it comes to degenerative meniscal lesions. Partial meniscectomy is therefore probably too frequently performed, given that all but one recently published randomized clinical trials demonstrated no additional benefit of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in comparison to nonoperative treatment. These publications generated an intense and controversial debate through editorials and letters, as well as a critical reconsideration of the indication for arthroscopy in degenerative meniscus lesions.