Torn Meniscus - Surgery Good or Bad Idea?

[Prametheus]

Hey whats going on everybody! I've got 2 tears in my meniscus and am unsure whether or not I should get surgery to clean it up. I've heard some mixed reviews about the effectiveness of the surgery so I was hoping you guys could provide some insight. I have a medial and lateral tear, both of which cannot be repaired and would be removed. My knee clicks a decent amount and catches every so often. These generally aren't very painful but my knee does get sore from time to time. Would it be a good idea to get surgery before the start of the season or should I keep on truckin without it? Have you had the surgery and would you recommend it?

Thanks a bunch, really appreciate any help!

[Skirotica]

move to gimp central.

Studies show surgery doesn't reduce pain. Learned that from a lifelong runner friend. Not first hand experience.

[cmcrawfo]

How long ago did the injury happen? Are you able to weight bear fully now? (could you at the time of injury?) How swollen is your knee ? Do you have full range of motion? Is the pain felt mostly on full flexion? What is your current level of fitness / leg strength?

How old are you? Did you get an MRI?

[Banh Mi]

I had meniscus surgery in April. I injured it on Christmas, and by April it was feeling pretty good. I opted for surgery because I wanted it to feel perfect again, and lemme tell you, that never happened. My knee feels empty and it feels like a comparison of riding a hardtail vs a full suspension bike. And I get bouts of patellar tendonitis where the surgeon went in with the arthroscope. To be honest though, this just started happening and I may have torn it again, because may-September my knee felt pretty good.

Personally I didn't have too much of a catching/locking problem and if I could go back in time, I probably wouldn't have gotten the surgery. Im back able to barbell squat/lunge now, but there is pain, dead lifts actually make it feel better.

Atleast I'm only 22, as there are now medical breakthroughs to grow back meniscus cartilage when your under 25.

[Prametheus]

Thank you all for your input and for properly relocating this thread (I am new to TGR forum). I tore my meniscus when I was 10 in 2000 and was fine after that. June 2013, I was in a rafting accident and agitated my knee and it was pretty swollen. Now in November my knee still bothers me. I can fully weight bear and I have been rock climbing and biking since August. It isn't currently swollen at all. I have full range of motion and pain is felt usually after a hard day of climbing, hiking, biking or working out. It clicks and pops often and when I squat down really low or sit on my knees it bothers me. It sometimes catches with sudden movements, but it is more awkward than painful. I am 23 and have gotten an MRI recently.

[RedWolf]

Repair or menisectomy? Mine wasn't repairable and so they did a partial menisectomy, but I've never looked back. It feels fine and only took about 3-4 weeks before I felt 100% again.

[ate'em]

See a really good surgeon that deals with this stuff regularly, with pro athletes. Any doc can cut and stitch. You want an MRI, and a good surgeon who can confidently tell you that he has repaired x number of injuries just like yours, with a very good success rate.

Unless you have that kind of confidence in your corner, I sure as fuck wouldnt let any old surgeon start slicing and dicing my meniscus from a decade old injury, just because the hacks on TGR said it was a good idea.

I had a major meniscus repair this spring. No menisectomy. I am 34. Meniscus feels 100% now. No concerns. The tear was ugly, but the doc was good. Dont fuck around. You cant hit an undo button on a bad surgery. good luck.

[chewymix]

I tore mine in 2009 - had it trimmed in November 2011 as i'd have episodes of major pain from it but more importantly i'd be walking along and then could not straighten my leg fully. Chopped out the bad bit as it was 'ragged' and it was a disaster. Surgeon who has a great resume did a poor job of the clean up and i ended up with more catching than i went in with and so ended up with another scope with a different ortho in early 2012. Its now better than after the first scope but still not better than before the first, that said at least it does not lock any more.

If i only had pain and not mechanical issues i'd have prolly held off on the scope, i did for 2 years but then it got too much and i had to have it taken care of. Do your homework as all ortho's are not born equal.

[fiddler]

I had my meniscus cleaned up in 2008. I tore it back in the early 80s playing basketball. It finally started hurting a lot and started waking me up in the middle of the night. I had it checked out after skiing on Cinco de Mayo in the heavy slush at Alpental and feeling bad things happening in there. I had the knee specialist for athletic teams at the University do it. He cleaned out all the chunks, smoothed out the rough edges and did a micro-fracture to fill in the bare spots where the cartilage was gone. Its been good until this year, its starting to feel a little weak with a little pain again so I'll probably have it checked out again sometime in the new year. There are a lot of stories about this stuff in Gimp Central if you search back over the years. I'm glad I did it, the advice to have a good sports oriented surgeon is absolutely right. Good luck.

[cmcrawfo]

While nothing TGR tells you should be a substitute for sound medical advise ... I would say you are doing fine, get a good PT program, stick to it and just tough out the discomfort. It is highly unlikely that a surgical procedure will alleviate your pain significantly, and as you dont really have any functional disability, IMO its not worth the risk and limited benefit of a procedure.

[chewymix]

The surgery did rid me of the feeling like someone was sticking a hot poker into my medial knee however the knee action itself feels less natural than pre surgery.

[RCC55125]

Before making a decision on surgery read this thread:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...lder-Yesterday.

Research clinics in your area doing stem cell therapy and talk to one of them, a consult is usually free. If you don't already have one you'll need a recent MRI for this.
Tore one meniscus in the early 80's the other in '04. Both had material removed. Always had pain and swelling with activity. I had the stem cell therapy done in August and now go up and down stairs with no pain. It might not be right for you but it is an option with the potential of repairing the damage.

[jma233]

Having a large portion of your meniscus removed at such a young age is a serious decision. I have a large tear in my medial meniscus for going on 4 years. It gave me a lot of problems until I managed to get my gluts strong. My knee would lock and even slightly sublux while locked (the acl is suspect too). I'm pretty sure my knee would be unstable without the meniscus so I chose the conservative route. It took some time and some pretty heavy weights but I no longer have any problems with it. No locking episodes in well over a year. Deadlifts and powerlifting style squats were key. Its important that the tibia remain vertical during the exercises to minimize shear stress on the meniscus. PM me if you want more details.

[Jethro]

I had a small meniscus tear and some knee cartilage damage a few years ago in a clumsy, slow speed skate skiing fall. I did not do anything for six months and finally went to a doctor. After looking at the MRI, he said I was better off not having surgery as long as the pain was not an issue. Years later, my knee feels fine. I do have some clicking and popping, but it never locks up. Each case is different, but I am glad I did not have the surgery. I did have a bunch of shoulder work done almost two weeks ago, so I am not adverse to surgery.

[umby]

I just had a posterior medial meniscus tear repaired 5 days ago. I have no idea how I tore it, just one day it hurt to push down on my left pedal on my road bike (had gone on a long mtn bike ride the day before). After many doctor visits and a few cortisone shots I got an MRI which revealed a posterior medial meniscus tear and a fairly good sized synovial plica fold. I saw 3 orthopedic surgeons in SF and got two similar opinions and one out in left field. The two that agreed said surgery can wait if I want, but eventually it will have to happen as they did not think it was repairable (i.e., in the white tissue). The third wanted me to do either platelet rich plasma or stem cell therapies, both which are out of pocket and not FDA approved (or have sufficient safety data for the dr. recommending to do himself). Working in the healthcare/pharma/biotech industry and knowing several doctors I knew the alternative treatments were not really viable options. I elected to have surgery and was told I would be back to full activity in around 6 weeks if they were to just remove the tear.

I had the surgery last week (5 days ago) and when I woke up from the general anesthesia I noticed I had a knee brace on... something that is not normal for the partial removal of a meniscus. Once I was a little less drugged up I spoke with the surgeon and he said the tear was actually bigger than he anticipated, and would have had to remove 25% of my meniscus. Fortunately it was in tissue that still had blood flow and as a result he put 3 sutures in the meniscus. He said I can use it for the time being but to not bend it more than 90 degrees (limited to 70 degrees by brace) for the time being. The surgeon thinks I will be able to get on a stationary bike in around 4 weeks (would have been 2 weeks if just removed part of the meniscus). I have no idea how long in total I am looking at, and am keeping my fingers crossed that I won't be out for the entire ski season.

Part of my reasoning for getting it taken care of now instead of waiting until the spring was to get it fixed before ski season really got going (would have been back on skis in 6 weeks - 12/25). However since it was repairable I may be looking at January/February/March before I can think of getting on skis again. Long term it is best that I will still have a full meniscus, and keep having to try to remind myself that as Tahoe resorts are starting to open up over the next few weeks.

I also had the synovial plica fold shaved down... that is pretty straight forward though as the synovial plica was described by the doc's as an "unnecessary structure"