Treatment of large bone defects represents a great challenge in orthopedic and craniomaxillofacial surgery. Although there are several methods for bone reconstruction, they all have specific indications and limitations. The concept of using barrier membranes for restoration of bone defects has been developed in an effort to simplify their treatment by offering a sinlge-staged procedure. Research on this field of bone regeneration is ongoing, with evidence being mainly attained from preclinical studies. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current experimental and clinical evidence on the use of barrier membranes for restoration of bone defects in maxillofacial and orthopedic surgery. Although there are a few promising preliminary human studies, before clinical applications can be recommended, future research should aim to establish the 'ideal' barrier membrane and delineate the need for additional bone grafting materials aiming to 'mimic' or even accelerate the normal process of bone formation. Reproducible results and long-term observations with barrier membranes in animal studies, and particularly in large animal models, are required as well as well-designed clinical studies to evaluate their safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

Introduction

Bucket handle tear of the menisci is a common type of lesion resulting from injury to the knee joint. Bucket handle injury of both menisci in almost all cases is associated with a lesion to either the anterior or the posterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint. We describe a case of acute bucket-handle tear of the medial and lateral menisci with intact anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments in a dancer. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous reports of this type of injury in the literature.

Case presentation

A 28-year-old Caucasian Greek woman presented to the emergency department after sustaining an injury to her right knee during dancing. An MRI evaluation demonstrated tears in both menisci of the right knee, while the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments were found to be intact. A partial medial and lateral meniscectomy was then performed. At a follow-up examination six months after her injury, clinical tests demonstrated that our patient's right knee was stable, had a full range of motion and had no tenderness. She was satisfied with the outcome of the operation and returned to her pre-injury activities.

Conclusion

We present the first case in the literature that describes a combined bucket-handle injury of both the medial and lateral menisci with an intact anterior cruciate ligament. The clinical examination of the anterior cruciate ligament was unremarkable, with no signs of deficiency or rupture. The posterior cruciate ligament was also intact. On magnetic resonance imaging, the ligaments were visualised as intact in all their length. These findings were confirmed by arthroscopic evaluation.