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torn meniscus, what to do

C

Carolina Golfer

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Hey guys, need your help. I went to the ortho and he said, "he thinks" I have a torn meniscus in my right knee. He'll know better when he opens me up. I am reluctant to go this route. But, I've had a similar problem a few years ago and physical therapy helped a little and it seem to resolve itself several months later. My question is have you been through this arthoscopic surgery or have you tried a different route? I know you're not doctors and everyone says, go see a doctor. I did today and was not happy with the outcome.

BTW, be careful when trying new moves especially as a sr golfer, lol. I tried to start the forward swing with the lower body as the backswing completes and it triggered this latest episode.
 
I’ve had the majority of both medial menisci removed and a failed repair in my left medial meniscus. As long as it’s a minor tear and everything else is structurally sound, it’s a quick and easy recovery.
 
He should be able to tell you the severity of the surgery. At the least they will shave it a bit whatever you do when it’s over do PT like crazy
 
He thinks? An MRI will show a tear - won't it? I thought I had a torn meniscus several years ago and the ortho doc told me to strengthen my leg. It resolved. My MRI showed no tear.
 
Scrap22 said:
He thinks? An MRI will show a tear - won't it? I thought I had a torn meniscus several years ago and the ortho doc told me to strengthen my leg. It resolved. My MRI showed no tear.
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yea most meniscus injuries can be rehabbed without surgery. That would be my recommendation, with surgery being last resort
 
He should have a good idea from the MRI, but may have said that as it could be worse when he gets in there. When I tore my ACL they saw the meniscus needed attention as well. Thought it would be about 40% cleaned up and ended up roughly 60%. Wasn't too happy about it, but it will continue to tear gradually over time if not cleaned up. So I was told.

PT PT PT but know that having the cushion (meniscus) removed it won't be smooth movement anymore and more bone/bone.

Also...get multiple opinions once the MRI is done. Went through 3 doctors before deciding on the one that would actually do the surgery (if needed).
 
scratchgolfjourney said:
yea most meniscus injuries can be rehabbed without surgery. That would be my recommendation, with surgery being last resort
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Unfortunately, much of the meniscus has poor blood flow, which can eliminate non-surgical recovery as an option.

As others have said, sometimes meniscus procedures are somewhat exploratory with the surgeon not knowing exactly what they will find until they get a scope in there, but oftentimes the area needs to be cleaned up to prevent further damage.
 
he thinks you have a meniscus tear and he is going to open you up without doing an MRI? As someone who does this for a living my first suggestion would be to find a different doctor. If you'd like, shoot me a PM with your location and I can ask fellow athletic trainers who they recommend in your area.

The next thing for you to know is how things will go post surgery differ based on what the Dr does. Is the tear in such a location that they can repair it (only 1/3rd of the meniscus has a blood supply sufficient enough to allow healing) or will they just have to snip off the torn piece and clean it up. If they can repair it you will be non weight bearing on crutches for 6 weeks and then begin rehab. Yes they will give you a few limited exercises you can do, but they will want you to keep the knee straight and no weight on it. If they clean it up then it's really a pretty quick 3-6 week rehab depending on how hard you go at it.
 
Meniscus surgery was the easiest and best thing I ever did. Walked out of my surgery. But as others have stated if it’s a simple meniscus tear a mri should tell you that.
 
I had a tear about 10 years ago, confirmed it with a MRI. Arthroscopic surgery as an outpatient.
When they did the surgery they used a camera and showed me the pictures. It looked like a torn fingernail and they shaved it off. Crutches for the first few days then PT for a few months after. The good news is it gets better to the point that as I'm writing this I had to think which knee got operated on. Good Luck.
 
This may be more info than you want. I had 3 scopes on my right knee before it was replaced. The first was to repair a tear that appeared as relatively small on the MRI but was much larger making the scope more involved. The tear was from an inner portion of the meniscus that had extended to the edge and then began peeling away from the bone. Rehab was a bit more and longer than normal but not terribly difficult. The next 2 were just clean ups of junk from degeneration over time. With my last 2 scopes, I was playing golf within 5 or 6 weeks. I was happy after each one because I could move without pain. I could not have rehabbed the problem with PT.

I'll go out on a limb and say that rehabbing the knee will work only the most minor meniscal tears. You can strengthen the muscles around the knee to help with stability but all the PT in the world isn't going to heal or repair a tear.
 
I had torn meniscus in both my knees and they did the arthroscopic surgery on both of them at the same time. I mean they make you walk out the day of the sugery and full recovery is 4 to 6 weeks. My knees felt so much better. Unfortunately I think i have done it again 20 some years later know. I would not hesitate to get the surgery if i were your and form myself again.
 
Scrap22 said:
He thinks? An MRI will show a tear - won't it? I thought I had a torn meniscus several years ago and the ortho doc told me to strengthen my leg. It resolved. My MRI showed no tear.
Click to expand...

Same here. Tore my inner meniscus while running a number of years ago and it healed up with rest and some very light PT. Hasn't been a problem since, thankfully. But that was all done with doctor advice - if he said he wanted to open me up for better recovery, then that's what I would have done.
 
Did an MRI in 2019, found a tear
Had surgery during the Memorial day weekend.
Was golfing again in 10 days.

Don't commit to Surgery without a MRI - It's a "Non-Starter" without it.
 
Went thru the medial meniscus tear/arthroscopic surgery about 5 years ago at age 45. Knees are/were pretty good. I squatted down to clean up a spill at a Halloween party and felt a pretty significant "pop". Knee was really sore the next day. Then my knee would lock up at the slightest bump or odd action causing significant pain and I couldn't straighten my knee. Ortho doc let me skip all the rehab stuff and got the mri ordered. It showed a "bucket handle" tear, The tear would pop out of place, like a bucket handle, and that was what would not let my knee extend.
I had the outpatient surgery on a Thursday. Went home on crutches and with pain meds. I never took anything other than ibuprofen after I got home Was off the crutches by Saturday and played golf the next weekend.
I had three little entry points/scars. The doctor said if not something new (injections/stem cells) I will likely have arthritis and be a knee replacement candidate, maybe 10-15 years. It feels like it clanks a little bone on bone and aches from time to time. Sometimes it feels like there is space in the knee, almost like a little pressure or a bubble. So far so good though. I'm hoping in the next ten years they come along with the injections that sort of fill in the old cartilage and avoid knee replacement.
Maintaining a healthy weight & strengthening the legs will help too which I've done over the last year or so.
 
I JUST went through this. First of all, get a MRI so you wont have some exploratory surgery. It just doesnt sound right to say "Hey when we open you up we will see if it is torn". Anyway after rehab and knee strengthening my options were to A. get a shot to help with the pain (because with a tear it can flop into the knee joint and cause pain) or B. get surgery. Im glad I did surgery. It was easy and he found a little tear behind my knee. Also in my case sometime you can develop a bakers cyst behind your knee. First time I had that it popped and hurt like hell. Could hardly walk on it. But in surgery he was able to drain the cyst. Rehab after surgery was easy and I feel very good now.

Anyway good luck.
 
You've received a lot of great input from so many who have had the same or similar experiences. So, I will only add, both my wife and daughter have had theirs scoped - and while it hurts a lot for a few days to maybe a week, they both agreed it was worth doing.

They both had MRIs, and both did all the PT and more.

In my experience from a few surgeries (plus again my wife and daughter) PT is the real key to it all, faster healing/strengthening, less scar tissue buildup, and more range of motion - without PT, you get only things that are detrimental to a fully successful procedure (again, just my opinion).
 
Parrot said:
Have you had an MRI?
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No. What was crazy the Doctor said, he would order the MRI if I wanted to and even if it looked good, he wouldn't trust it. The only way to know is open me up. I am running quickly from this guy.

Thanks, for the support and replies. The THP community always come through.
 
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Carolina Golfer said:
No. What was crazy the Doctor said, he would order the MRI if I wanted to and even if it looked good, he wouldn't trust it. The only way to know is open me up. I am running quickly from this guy.
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Yeah, that sounds fishy. Not trusting an MRI is bizarre.
 
Without imaging it's not a torn meniscus.

Dial in your diet. Titrate up physical activity. Get stronger with smartly progressed squats and deadlifts.

Understand that people who don't golf also tear their meniscus.
 
Parrot said:
Yeah, that sounds fishy. Not trusting an MRI is bizarre.
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I will play devil’s advocate here and say I’ve been in 2 procedures where the MRI showed what was thought to be a torn ACL in one cause and a torn rotator cuff in the other. When they went in with the camera, both structures were fully intact. All imaging is fallible and MRIs are no different because of the requirement to be still for an extended period of time to get the best picture quality. If your surgeon is confident based on the difficulties you’re experiencing and with some of the maneuvers I’m sure he tried in the office, it’s worth saving a thousand dollars and not getting the MRI. Recovery from a knee scope is a couple days if they don’t do anything and only 4-6 weeks if they do a meniscectomy (remove the torn pieces). It’s extremely unlikely they would sew it back together because only a small outer portion of the disc receives enough direct blood supply to support healing. Any tears on the inside are better to be removed to prevent the clicking and discomfort you might be experiencing. It’s never a wrong idea to try physical therapy because meniscectomies do increase your risk of arthritis going forward, but I wouldn’t discount a surgeon right away just because they don’t think you need an MRI
 
Carolina Golfer said:
Hey guys, need your help. I went to the ortho and he said, "he thinks" I have a torn meniscus in my right knee. He'll know better when he opens me up. I am reluctant to go this route. But, I've had a similar problem a few years ago and physical therapy helped a little and it seem to resolve itself several months later. My question is have you been through this arthoscopic surgery or have you tried a different route? I know you're not doctors and everyone says, go see a doctor. I did today and was not happy with the outcome.

BTW, be careful when trying new moves especially as a sr golfer, lol. I tried to start the forward swing with the lower body as the backswing completes and it triggered this latest episode.
Click to expand...

I went thru the exact same thing one year ago. MRI, looked like a meniscus and mcl tear - but need to open up. I went that route and it was worse, I had a gouge in the bone with the bone flapping. So the assumption was my initial injury was the bone, then the bone spur tore the meniscus.

I chose to go through the surgery. In my case the rehab takes much longer than normal - the general sentiment was I would not be close to normal until later this year.

I only started back to golf a couple of months ago and climbing stairs (loading) was difficult up until December. My knee still pops when stuck in one place for too long.

One guy that was in rehab with me, had both knees replaced and was moving perfectly by Oct.

Bootom line, everyone concurs my knee will never be the same. Needless to say, I was not happy with any outcome. Additional note of unhappiness, I chose to do the injections of Hylauronic acid and "stem cell" repair, and nothing is covered by insurance because insurance doesn't recognize either as valid medical treatements. :((n)
 
As many have said no mri, then no clue. I tore mine 3 seperate times. After the 3rd they went in and nothing they could do it was gone.

No surgery unless it's a must. PT PT PT...rinse and repeat. Even if they fix it, you have a better chance to tear it again.
 
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