One of the most common knee injuries is a meniscal tear. These often occur after a twisting injury to the knee. However, there may be only minimal swelling, which will quickly resolve.
Typically you will notice pain on the inside or outside of the knee. This pain tends to come and go, and is mostly noticed with sporting activity.
Meniscal tears are easily diagnosed on MRI. However, not all tears need surgery. If your symptoms don’t bother you too much, or don’t stop you playing sport, physiotherapy, muscle strengthening, and injections can help avoid surgery.
However, if you have a serious meniscal tear, you might find that it stops you being able to fully straighten the knee. This is a much more urgent condition, and usually requires surgery.
Otherwise, if the meniscal tear is bothersome, and if you don’t have any arthritis, knee arthroscopy is a very successful surgery. Performed as day surgery, there is a 1/1000 risk of infection, and a very small risk of deep vein thrombosis. You don’t need crutches, and can walk on it immediately. However, you should not run or jump for 6 weeks to give your knee time to recover. During this period you ride an exercise bike, and after a couple of weeks begin light strengthening in the gym. The chance of a good outcome is 95%
Most commonly (95%) of the time, surgical treatment involves trimming / removing the torn segment. Occasionally, the meniscus tear is very large, and can be repaired with sutures. Meniscal repair is a much more significant surgery, requiring a brace for 6 weeks, and no sport for 6 months. It is successful in 70-80% of cases, but meniscal repairs can fail and cause pain in the future, requiring that the meniscus be removed despite best efforts.
Dr. Tim Dwyer 