Spontaneous healing of a displaced bucket-handle tear of the lateral meniscus in a child

Abstract

Bucket-handle tears less frequently occur in the lateral meniscus than in the medial meniscus. An 11-year-old male patient complained of painful swelling and locking due to a displaced bucket-handle tear of the lateral meniscus. We recommended an arthroscopic surgery; however, the patient left the hospital without surgical treatment. Six weeks afterwards, he returned without any complain of pain and he regained full range of motion. The final follow-up magnetic resonance imaging showed reduction of the torn meniscal fragment without any signal changes suggestive of a meniscal tear. We report a rare case of an isolated displaced bucket-handle tear of the lateral meniscus in an 11-year-old patient that healed spontaneously without surgical intervention.