Meniscus injury

Symptoms

With a meniscus injury, the knee is painful and swollen due to fluid that accumulates in the knee joint. The knee may "lock up" or feel unstable. Sometimes you may have other symptoms.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis is made after an examination of knee function, swelling, stability of the knee ligaments and mobility of the meniscus. Pain or clicking on the inside or outside of the knee is characteristic.

Treatments

If there is a chance for spontaneous healing and the knee does not lock up, surgery is often not necessary. Your symptoms may already decrease with an adjustment of your activities. It is wise not to squat and limit sports for about three months. Bicycling, however, is good for the knee.

You will also often be given anti-inflammatories. If this does not sufficiently resolve the inflammation such as swelling and pain, a local anti-inflammatory can be injected into the knee by a knee specialist.

Intervention

If the knee locks up or previous treatments do not work, surgery is necessary. This is done through an arthroscopy (keyhole surgery) of the knee and can be done via day surgery. Depending on the type of tear, age and degree of blood flow, the injury can be repaired in the following ways:

• Partial meniscectomy: the bad piece of the meniscus, where the injury is located, is removed. An attempt is made to leave as much intact meniscus as possible.
• Meniscus suture: a meniscus tear is repaired by suturing the injury. This procedure can only be done when there is sufficient blood flow to the meniscus on the place of the injury.

Arthroscopy (keyhole surgery)

Recovery

Recovery depends on the type of injury and additional conditions of the knee such as osteoarthritis. After a partial meniscectomy, you may put weight on the leg depending on your symptoms. Often this is with the help of crutches. Cycling is good for recovery. It is best to keep your leg elevated after surgery, the lower leg should be higher than the upper leg. You may start playing sports again after six weeks.

After meniscus suturing, you should not kneel deeply for three months, and you should lean on crutches for the first six weeks to put less strain on the knee. You should not resume sports until the knee has fully recovered. It is important that additional knee injuries are also treated to achieve a good recovery. Cycling promotes healing.

You can follow orthopaedic rehabilitation after suffering a meniscus injury.

Orthopaedic rehabilitation