surgical report

Tomorrow is the followup with Dr. Saliman.  In advance, I received the surgical report.  Here's an excerpt:

The medial compartment was evaluated carefully. The tibial-sided peripheral body region
tear was rasped to help stimulate healing, as was the radial root tear that was
approximately 10 mm away from the native root insertion site.  A shaver was used to
debride some of the central edge tissue as was the biter.  Middle third and peripheral
third tissue was not excised and instead was repaired back to the bone by creating a
tunnel through the tibia via an anterior tibial incision and a FlipCutter guide. A curette
was used to debride the cartilage from around the insertion site into the joint of the pin
to give a nice bony bed for the meniscus to heal into. The Smith and Nephew
NovoStitch device was then used to pass sutures which were shuttled out for 1.2 mm
mini-tape sutures and then passed within its own loop to create the locking loop
stitches. These were then pulled through the tibial tunnel and tied over a metal button.
The meniscus was probed and found to be securely repaired back to the bone. The
body region tibial-sided peripheral tearing was then fixed using the Smith and Nephew
NovoStitch device and spinal needle and a CHIA suture shuttle via 2 different
approaches in order to place circumferential compression stitches to adequately
capture the capsular side of the tibial tear. Revo knots were tied and cut in square
fashion. This tear came together much like a puzzle and required advanced training
and experience in order to anatomically reduce and uniformly compress the tear edges
adequate to hold them together during the 6 weeks it will take for this tear to heal.
Rachel S., a qualified physician assistant/associate provided crucial suture
management and intra- and extra-articular suture retrieval assistance throughout the
procedure, facilitating precise sewing and knot tying. This was particularly important
due to the complex nature of the patient's meniscus tears within the challenging
constraints of the peripheral and posterior knee compartments. 

So, it seems the radial tear was close to the native root insertion site, that it became the 'new root.'  Probably better that this tear was close enough to the root that it could be treated as a root repair.  Pretty high tech surgery, virtuoso technique.