Knee pain is a common complaint among highly active young people as well as aging adults. One of the most frequent causes of knee pain at any age? A torn meniscus. Learn more about meniscal injury treatment and recovery here.
Meniscus tears have the dual distinction of being one of the most common degenerative knee injuries among aging adults, as well as one of the most frequent acute sports injuries among seasoned athletes and weekend warriors alike. In fact, over one million people sustain a meniscus injury every year in the United States.
When you see our team of board-certified orthopedists and sports medicine specialists at Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County for a torn meniscus, you’re in good hands. After evaluating the severity of your injury, we create a targeted plan to facilitate optimal healing, restore full functionality, and help you achieve a complete recovery.
Exactly how long this takes depends on several factors. Here’s what you should know.
Healthy, stable knee joints require two healthy menisci
Three bones come together to form your knee joint: your thigh bone (femur), shinbone (tibia), and kneecap (patella). Smooth articular cartilage covers the ends of each bone within the joint, enabling movement with minimal friction.
On either side of your knee joint, in between your thigh bone and shinbone, there’s another type of cartilage: two C-shaped cushions of strong yet flexible shock-absorbing cartilage called menisci. Knee meniscal pads function to:
- Stabilize your joint and facilitate smooth, fluid motion
- Transfer directional load during rotational movement
- Keep weight load evenly distributed across your joint
- Deliver continuous lubrication and nutrition to your joint
The medial meniscus is located on the inside of your knee joint, while the lateral meniscus is on the outside. Knee joints can’t be fully functional without healthy menisci.
Meniscus tears can occur suddenly or gradually
As a vital part of a high-use joint, menisci are strong — but they’re also vulnerable to injury. There are two types of meniscal injuries: acute tears that occur suddenly and gradual tears that develop as a result of age-related degenerative changes.
Sudden, acute meniscus tear
As one of the most common sports injuries among adult athletes, an acute meniscus tear typically occurs during a movement that excessively stresses your joint or pushes it past its normal rotational limits. A sudden meniscal tear often causes a popping sensation within your knee. Afterward, the affected joint may feel:
- Very stiff, swollen, painful, and weak
- As if it’s always locking or catching
- Unstable when you’re bearing weight
- Too painful to fully straighten or bend
Acute meniscal injuries are most likely to occur in sports that include a lot of squatting, twisting, or positional changes. Most acute tears occur when your knee is bent, your foot is planted, and your upper body is engaged in a twisting motion.
Gradual, degenerative meniscus tear
Older, less active adults — particularly those who have knee osteoarthritis (OA) — are also susceptible to meniscal tears. However, these subtle knee injuries happen gradually, as your menisci deteriorate and thin with age. Chronic knee pain and joint locking or catching are the most common warning signs.
Meniscal healing begins with prompt, expert treatment
The last thing you should do with a suspected meniscal tear is push through the pain or take a wait-and-see approach. Instead, come see our team for a prompt evaluation. Early care is the foundation of optimal meniscal healing.
Minor meniscus tears
Minor to moderate tears are contained within the outer third of your meniscus, an area that has a rich blood supply. As such, conservative care is often enough to help regenerate new, healthy cartilage tissue. The typical treatment plan includes:
- RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation)
- Passive rehabilitation exercises and stretches
- Joint-stabilizing physical therapy exercises
If conservative care doesn’t restore full meniscal strength, stability, and functionality, minimally invasive meniscus repair surgery may be the next best step. Less than one in four meniscal tears require surgical repair.
Severe meniscus tears
When a tear extends to the inner two-thirds of your meniscus — an area of cartilage that lacks blood flow — it can’t be surgically repaired. In such cases, our team may recommend trimming it down to stop further tearing or removing the damaged pad and replacing it with a meniscus transplant from a donor.
Typical timeline for meniscus tear healing and recovery
With proper care, most people recover fully from a meniscus tear. Your personal timeline for healing depends on the severity of your tear, the required treatment approach, and your body’s own healing abilities.
If you don’t need surgery, you can expect several weeks or months of rehabilitation and physical therapy. A younger person with a mild tear might get better in 1-3 months, while someone who’s 35 or older might need 3-6 months to achieve the same level of healing.
In general, it takes 1-2 months to recover from meniscus repair surgery, followed by several more weeks or months of rehabilitation and physical therapy to restore normal knee strength and stability and reduce your risk of reinjury.
Do you have knee pain? We can help. Give us a call today to schedule a visit at your nearest Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County office in Atlantis, Boynton Beach, or Wellington, Florida, or click online to book an appointment at your convenience.
