Meniscal Tear Types, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Meniscal Tear Types, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

By Neelam Goswami

Knee is the largest and very complicated joint in the human body. Since we use our knees so much and they bear almost the whole weight of our body, they're vulnerable to both mild and severe injuries.

A bone fracture, ligament injury and damage to the cartilage are the severe knee-related injuries that can cause acute knee pain and joint stiffness, and limit knee movement.

Meniscus and Tear Types
Meniscus (in plural- menisci) is a crescent-shaped disc that cushions your knee and acts like a shock absorber between the thigh (femur) and lower leg bones (tibia and fibula).

The meniscus cartilage within the knee joint, which bears 75-85% of the body weight, can be easily torn by the forceful rotating of the upper leg or hyper-flexing of the knee.

A meniscus tear can be partial or total rupture. The meniscus can be torn in a variety of ways, including longitudinal, bucket handle, flap, parrot-beak, torn horn and transverse.

Symptoms
People might hear a "popping" sound when they tear a meniscus. Generally, people with torn meniscus feel pain while walking or straightening the knee. Other common signs of a torn meniscus include a swelling and stiffness in and around the knee.

These symptoms may become worse if the torn meniscus fragments get caught in the knee joint. This may lead to catching sensations in the knee. If a large enough piece of meniscus becomes loose and lodges between the thigh bone and tibia, this may cause your knee to slip or lock.

Persons with mild pain mostly continue to move the knee joint. However, if the meniscus injury is left untreated your knee may become very stiff and painful months or years later, particularly if a person sustains repeated injury in the knee or continues pivoting motions, squatting, and vigorous activities.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis begins with a physical examination of the knee and detailed description of the injury. Your health care professional will want to know the onset of pain and swelling. X-rays may be taken of the knee, not to identify meniscal tears but to look for bone fractures, arthritis or any floating bony fragment within the joint. A better imaging testing, such as a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), may be recommended to confirm the diagnosis of a meniscal tear.

Treatment
The treatment of a meniscus tear depends on its size, location and extent of the injury. The treatment also largely depends on factors like your age, activity level, or whether the tear occurred along with other knee injuries, such as ACL rupture.

If the tear is minor and the pain, instability and other symptoms do not persist, then it can be treated conservatively without a surgery. The non-surgical treatment may include Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation, collectively known as RICE protocol.

Taking help of a physical therapist to learn which muscle-strengthening exercises are appropriate and how to correctly perform them is a wise idea.

As a last resort, you orthopedic surgeon may advise a meniscus tear surgery to repair or remove the tear. If the tear is large and a person's lifestyle is deteriorated due to its symptoms, the doctor may perform arthroscopic or open knee surgery to repair or remove the torn meniscus and replace it with a new one.

Recovery after surgical repair may take anywhere from 4-6 months. Following the surgery, your surgeon may put the treated knee in a cast or brace to keep it from moving. You may also be asked to walk with crutches for 3 months. Your doctor may also recommend physiotherapy sessions in which you do a range of knee exercises to restore your knee mobility and strength.

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