My boyfriend had surgery for plica syndrome Easter of last year. His symptoms came on pretty quickly towards the end of February, after he ran the Austin half well and pain free mid-Feb. He is a PT so did all the stuff you should do to treat any type of inflammation issues, but nothing helped. He doused it in DMSO and we almost broke up over that (cheap horse medicine that works great but makes you smell awful!!). Anyway, he has had 4 knee surgeries total now and this one was by far the easiest of them all. It was a 30 minute surgery and he only used crutches to get down the hall to my apartment afterwards, and did not pick them up again after that. He walked better the day after surgery than he had been before because it had gotten to where even walking hurt him. He was back riding the trainer 9 days later. I do not remember the order the other things came back, but I know he did a 90 mile hilly ride without much trouble about a month after surgery and was back to racing sprints in June with absolutely no issues.

Not sure if that helps you much or not - maybe he can give you a few more details if he reads this.

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Kathleen
http://kcwoodhead.blogspot.com/

I suffered with knee pain issues for a year where I couldn't run. Doc diagnosed it as plica but I didn't get an MRI so can't be sure. Took a month off in there doing nothing at all, started biking again for a few months, then have started adding the running back in lately and am OK so far.

What seemed to work for me was taking some time off and massive doses of advil for a little while, then very very gradually starting to run again.

it may just take a lot of time though

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Are you sure it is plica? I ask because i have had similar pain in the past and went to an orthopedic surgon. This OS suggested that it may actualy be petella tendionitis and is difficut to distinguish between plica. Still he suggested that the key is to reduce inflimation for either issue, thus treatment is the same. He advised 6 weeks off with 1hr of stretching a day, aleve for three weeks, and quad strenthening exercises. This OS is the cheif knee surgon for the dallas cowboys, texas rangers, and dallas stars and i trust his advice as he is an accomplished expert. Before this OS, one lesser known OS suggested surgery, but the dallas OS expert said surgery should always be a last resort. He argued that icing and stretching should always be applied after all lower extremity exercises, even when you are feeling great. This ensures that swelling is kept to a minimum. Plica is like any other tissue, it get's inflamed and needs to be calmed down. once calmed down (may take a couple of weeks) constantly apply ice, occasional aleve (OS said it is better than advil), and always stretch. Hope this helps, it really helped me!

hey mike how MUCH alleve did he suggest?

i actually found that to be more effective than advil but I wasn't sure if it was as safe to OD on the stuff =)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

I have had an MRI and the report from the radiologist as well as the doctor I have spoken to both diagnosed Plica.

I don't feel like I am rushing into surgery, as the problem began quite a while ago. With arthroscopic surgery, I understand that they are able to see what the problem is (via the camera) and make only the necessary adjustments to the tissues. As I said originally, I am running out of eligibility and would hate to have this knee pain pop back up this summer or fall while I am training for cross country (in which my goal for the season is to be an All-American on a DI NCAA Championship-potential team).

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen

I thought Plica was when you have nutritional deficiencies that make you crave chalk!

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I think that's Pica.

like rappstar?

no wait thats salt, i think he is part horse, would explain the speed

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

If you have tried to calm the inflamation down and it did not work then i understand your position. On my MRI they could not seen any issue with my plica and thus could not be conclusive without scoping my knee. I was contemplating scoping but have since had no issue after a layoff and R&R. Make sure you have the best working on your knee, plica surgery is simple but can be easily botched by less reputable Orthopeds (as i have read). I took two aleve a day for three weeks-for first week took three a day-then went completely off for several weeks. I know these injuries are frustrating and hope it all goes well.

After two recommendations (one from a doctor I know is good, the other from a doctor I have heard is good), I have decided to get surgery. I will be going under the knife tomorrow morning. I have been told if the only issue they find with the scope is the Plica than I will be able to return running in 10 days. I decided getting it removed would allow me to train full throttle in the future without worrying about this coming back.

Wish me luck! I will give some updates on how the recovery goes.

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen

good luck man, these kind of injuries suuuuck

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Surgery was Wednesday. It went well, I think. I won't be able to say if it was truly successful until the coming weeks and months of course. The doctor said it was the biggest Plica he had seen so I am happy I decided to get it removed. Pain is pretty minimal. I have been taking some ibuprofen and have only taken a total of two Hydrocodone pills before I go to bed. It looks pretty swollen to me, but my school trainer said it looked really good. I will continue to elevate and ice it to help reduce the swelling. I have also begun doing some quad strengthening to prevent atrophy and try to increase range of motion.

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen

I had mine removed 2 weeks ago. How is you recovering?

Hi Jason,

I have been dealing with on and off bilateral knee pain for this entire year. I finally got a second opinion (originally was diagnosed with chondromalacia, b/c MRI was normal), and the second ortho said he was sure it was plica syndrome and that I could get them removed and be back to biking 2-3 weeks, running 4ish weeks. This was at the end of August. (I did mostly bike racing the past 3 years, but ran before that). I am about to go crazy with this injury, literally been doing PT for hips/glute/core strength on and off this whole year as well, and in my opinion it has improved some but its not good enough to do any real training, b/c I honestly never know how bad it will be that day. (I also took the last 2.5 months off of biking in hopes that doing non-repetitive activity would help and tried some other activities). I can pretty much feel this all the time, its not something that only pops up when I run for instance.

I was wondering how your recovery ended up and if you could detail some of your timeline. Thank you so much!

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Sorry to hear about your injury. Plica syndrome can be pretty tricky. I will fill you in a bit on what my experience has been since I had surgery over four years ago.

I see that you made it to my blog and left a comment on one of my posts there. I have a few posts from that time about my knee pain, getting the surgery, and then getting back into running.

I struggled with the injury for about four months before having surgery. That doesn't seem like a lot now, but at the time, it was really tough for me to miss that much as it meant missing out on both an indoor and outdoor NCAA season. The surgeon I went was certain it was Plica syndrome and that surgery was a much better option than rehab+cortisone injection. I did get a second opinion from an orthopedic surgeon I had worked with prior, and he confirmed the Plica was the issue. My surgeon sounded very confident that this surgery would be successful and that I would return to full volume running fairly soon. (at that time, "full volume" was between 80-100 mpw, depending on the week)

Sure enough, my doctor was right, and within a couple weeks I was exercising beyond just PT rehab. About a month after surgery I was running 20 miles/week, and continued to progress to about 60 over the next couple of months. I held at 60 for a while, added some swimming and cycling (which got me to do my first Olympic distance triathlon, a big part of the reason why I am racing professionally now), before finally getting back up to real high mileage about five months after surgery.

From what I can remember, I have not had any pain since the surgery. Swelling is really what limited my progress, which slowly reduced as time passed. The only negative side effect that I have had is that I seem to occasionally aggravate some scar tissue and my knee will swell up pretty good for 24 or 48 hours. This seemed to happen once every couple of months for the first year or two, but is now very rare. Again, no pain other than the swelling.

Maybe I just got lucky with a great doctor, but after my experience, I would certainly recommend the surgery if you have had multiple opinions recommending it.

Here are a few posts I've had about Plica and other injuries http://runpd.com/tag/injuries/ (scroll down a bit to find the 2010 posts)

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen

Thanks Jason,
That is incredibly encouraging that you were able to get back to a decent level of training in only a month. That seems so short now that I've been dealing with this for this whole year. I would be thrilled to run 20 mpw. I made an appointment with an ortho for next week. He is the official knee ortho for University of Texas at Austin football team and comes well recommended, so I am hoping for a good consult. In your opinion, do you think you could have been cycling (on the road) in 2-3 weeks? Curious since that was my main activity prior to the last few months - although I had stopped running due to the consistent knee pain. Thank you again for your advice. I feel like if he is confident that it is plicas, I will go for the surgery, as rehab has just not been successful, despite the fact that I can complete all of the exercises with perfect form.
Elizabeth

Cycling was easier to get back into than running, from what I can remember. I'm sure I wasn't really torquing on the pedals for a couple months after, but spinning was was OK.

Best of luck with the surgery.

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen

Hello,

I am responding to this post because I believe I am suffering from an irritated plica and I am in need of some advice. I've had knee issues for a long time that I always attributed to runner's knee, but I am thinking that they may have been plica issues all along. A week ago, I felt a pain in my knee while swimming and when I got out of the pool it was very swollen and hard to walk. I figured that I had just tweaked something and with a few days off and lots of ice, compression, etc. I'd be back to my normal training. However, the swelling just will not go down. Is this something that I should expect? How long does swelling tend to last? I tried running easy but could only go for about 20 minutes before I could feel it catching/seizing up. Spinning easy on the trainer feels OK as well as swimming with a buoy (not kicking). It seems like the main issue is the swelling, the pain is pretty minimal. I saw my PT last night and she thought this was plica syndrome, and that there was not much to do but wait. Being a triathlete, I find it very hard to be patient! I was set to race on Sunday but seeing as I can barely function, I am going to have to bail. I really don't want to have the surgery unless is the only option. Can anyone offer any advice/thoughts/etc.?

Much appreciated,
Carolyn

I've have severe plica issues in my left knee and minor issues in the right, although the right seems to be getting a lot better. I have had the left knee medial plica removed twice and it is still an issue to the point I cannot run and can barely cycle. When I cycle the next 3-4 days are hell as my knee swells bad and hurts.

How are things going four years later? I had the plica removal surgery in 1999 with a fairly easy recovery afterwards. Though my orthopedist indicated that the plica sometimes will come back.

Earlier this week, I went for my first cold (45 degree) early morning ride in over three years. (I live in SoCal and my schedule used to allow me to do my winter rides in the middle of the day when it's warmer.) After 10 miles, the pain and swelling seemed to come out of nowhere. It's unmistakable if you've had it before.

The plica seems to be back for sure, though not as bad as it was 15 years ago. Hopefully I can nip the swelling in the bud before the swelling gets to the point of no return and avoid surgery. Surprisingly, running isn't at hard on it as cold weather cycling.

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Twitter @bikingbrian
Website http://www.bikingbrian.com

Things are going great! Racing tri's professionally. :) As I mentioned in a previous posts, I've had some strange swelling every once in a while, but no pain and nothing recently.

Sorry to hear that yours has returned! I don't remember my doctor discussing that as a possibility with me, though he may have.

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Jason Pedersen
RunPd.com - Running as fast I can since '93
@jasonpedersen