[Cysts of the menisci of the knee].

Introduction Cysts of the menisci, particularly of the lateral meniscus, are not uncommon, and most are easily diagnosed by the history and examination of the knee. The first clinical description was by Ebner in 1904. Amongst the case reports in the literature are those of Becton & Young (1965) who in a 20-year review found only twenty-eight cases. Bonnin in 1958 described twenty-nine cases to which he added a further twenty-one cases over an 8-year period. De Palma (1954) in a series of 507 knees found forty-eight with cystic degeneration, an incidence of 9%°, whilst Smillie (1970) in his massive series of meniscectomies, had 633 cases of cysts of the meniscus, an overall incidence of 8% In our series there were fifty cysts in 249 cases, an incidence of 20%.