Although I don't have a simple yes or no as an answer after your interesting question, I may recall that some anatomical data in knee surgery are not always known to anyone.
As an example, please find this recent anatomical and surgical paper (from Leuven University, Belgium) which is worth reading whatsoever (just in case you did not know this study).
To me there is no evidence known to answer this intristing question. My feeling is, if the ACL reconstruction stabilises the knee excellent, than probably it may prevent early degenerative meniscal tears. If you look into papers regarding development of arthrosis with/ w.o. ACL plasty, than there is no diffenerence in outcome, some studdies even report of earlier arthrotic changes with ACL Replacement.
Here is a new question- what are the criterias for ACL Replacement, what knee profits, what are criterias againts ACL replacement?
as i see in my work , the symptoms of the arthritic changes in the knee is not getting better with time but the patient only get benefit from the stability of the knee ..
so i don't think that ACL reconstruction will decrease the menscal injury pain and symptoms
It's an interesting question, but I have a counter for you to consider: wouldn't you think that in the case of simultaneous ACL/meniscal injury/damage, that the surgeon would definitively address both issues? I can't imagine the surgeon who I work with going into a knee and leaving a meniscus derangement (however simple it might be) alone...
It also depends on how much effect that ACL laxity played on altered gait mechanics, I would imagine.
I agree Daniel Lowder, I am not suggesting that meniscal tear should not be addressed while doing simultaneous ACL reconstruction.
I am just hypothecate get that by doing ACL reconstruction as we all know that we decrease the further incidence of meniscal injury by minimising laxity in the same way we can prevent furtherance of already existing meniscal injury and attending symptoms
That's a really good question- it stands to reason that ACL reconstruction, in stabilizing the knee, would decrease the incidence of meniscal damage. I have no idea if that's reflected in terms of academic studies, but it seems to make common sense.
The only other thing I'm wondering about is how inherently unstable someone's knee is- how that negatively affects the ACL, creating risk of rupture. For instance, if you repair someone's ACL, but they still have a crazy valgus angle to their knee, I would think that they'd still be predisposed to meniscal issues.