Have a problem kneeling. PT checked it out and said I may have a very minimal meniscus tear and we are doing PT now. How long do these things take to heal? I’m pretty much shutting it down for 3-4 weeks. Should I be good at that point? Thanks.
non-imaging (MRI) dx of meniscus is very unreliable.
If an actual meniscus tear, they do not “heal” per se. Cartilage has little or no damage healing capacity.
If torn, some victims may re-learn activities, limp, adapt exercises, and just plain put up with it.
If more than a very small tear, you will know in about 3-6 months, when you get the MRI.
My advice – combination mild active rehab, and wait 3-6 months.
I’ve had an unusual medial knee pain. Went to sports med clinic. No help, other than lots of unhelpful PT and a poor quality MR. Went to a university sports med clinic and a high quality MR image. The good news was that there was/is no degenerative or acute knee problem - no meniscus tear (which was my dx). So based on my experience and lots of literature review - is your meniscal tear confirmed by MR or scope? No? then, as the previous poster suggested and I’m telling you directly - you don’t really know. Here’s the deal on meniscal tears…to a first approximation - they don’t heal. Sure, if you are young, the tear is small and located near the periphery where there is some micovasculature - sure, maybe. But if any of those parameters are untrue, your tear won’t heal. Again, with ideal circumstance based on age, extent and location of tear - you might get a repair. But the vast majority require a partial removal of the meniscus to regain performance. That surgery has + and -, so be sure that your eyes are open.
Most orthos can diagnoses a meniscus tear without an MRI based on your exam. Folks today like the extra knowledge or confirmation of an MRI but my ortho friends have shared the MRI is not necessary for most tears for diagnosis. Some choose not to have scope to trim a tear and others do. I have had two scopes first was tough to recover from but I had an underlying issue. Second was easy to recover from and my knee improved immediately. First was for a tear and second was for locking and bone spurs so different issue than yours.
Why not go to a sports trained ortho and get their opinion?
Have a problem kneeling. PT checked it out and said I may have a very minimal meniscus tear and we are doing PT now. How long do these things take to heal? I’m pretty much shutting it down for 3-4 weeks. Should I be good at that point? Thanks.
The answer is, of course, it depends. Your PT may be able to strengthen every thing around the knee that it won’t bother you. If you do end up having surgery, the strengthening will help a lot with your recovery, so you have nothing to lose with it. If you do have the surgery, go to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in knees. Don’t worry about him being a ‘‘sports doctor’’ or that ‘‘he’s a triathlete, so he know’s what I’m going through’’ or that ‘‘he helped some famous athlete get back in the game’’. Find the best most experience knee guy that you can find. And find doctor at an orthopedic specialty hospital if you can.
At the Hospital for Special Surgery and the Hospital for Joint Disease in NYC, the doctors work on only one or two things. They get really good at it. They line the patients up (in beds) and the knee doctor will work on knees all day. He get’s really good at it.
If you go to an experienced knee surgeon, your recovery should be quick. You’ll again have PT a few times a week and be back running with no problems.
Most orthos can diagnoses a meniscus tear without an MRI based on your exam. Folks today like the extra knowledge or confirmation of an MRI but my ortho friends have shared the MRI is not necessary for most tears for diagnosis. Some choose not to have scope to trim a tear and others do. I have had two scopes first was tough to recover from but I had an underlying issue. Second was easy to recover from and my knee improved immediately. First was for a tear and second was for locking and bone spurs so different issue than yours.
Why not go to a sports trained ortho and get their opinion?
Exactly what my Ortho doc friend told me. He said an MRI is a waste of money. Until he gets in and looks, one really does not know for sure. Luckily the scope stuff today is pretty easy.
May 2012 for me. It lingers. Lots o’ cycling and knee strengthening specific exercises.
May 2012 for me. It lingers. Lots o’ cycling and knee strengthening specific exercises.
what kind of stuff did you do for strengthening?
As many have pointed out, meniscus tears don’t heal. However, they do scar down. Typically knee flexion is worse and symptoms and ROM will improve with knee extension activities to end range. These can settle down in days or last a while if you are continually aggravating it. Cycling is typically ok especially at high cadences. MRIs are relatively useless because most people by their 30s have some level of meniscal tearing regardless if symptomatic or not. Latest research shows that symptoms are as good with PT or surgery at 1 year following surgery. Stay Away from the knife and do your rehab and don’t make it worse.
Body weight squats
Single leg squats
Bridges
Wobble board using single leg
.
Have a problem kneeling. PT checked it out and said I may have a very minimal meniscus tear and we are doing PT now. How long do these things take to heal? I’m pretty much shutting it down for 3-4 weeks. Should I be good at that point? Thanks.
As noted above, it won’t heal (though you may learn to live with it through PT, etc.). I have a fairly significant tear five years ago and elected to have the surgery. I was on my bike (trainer) several days later for some light cycling, swimming immediately and was running short distances within 3+ weeks. I did a sprint all out eight weeks later and, though I wasn’t in wonderful shape, it went well. It can be a very manageable recovery if you decide to go the surgery route.
I don’t think surgery is an issue. PT said if it is even a tear it is incredibly minute.
Most orthos can diagnoses a meniscus tear without an MRI based on your exam. Folks today like the extra knowledge or confirmation of an MRI but my ortho friends have shared the MRI is not necessary for most tears for diagnosis. Some choose not to have scope to trim a tear and others do. I have had two scopes first was tough to recover from but I had an underlying issue. Second was easy to recover from and my knee improved immediately. First was for a tear and second was for locking and bone spurs so different issue than yours.
Why not go to a sports trained ortho and get their opinion?
Exactly what my Ortho doc friend told me. He said an MRI is a waste of money. Until he gets in and looks, one really does not know for sure. Luckily the scope stuff today is pretty easy.
follow the money !!
I don’t think surgery is an issue. PT said if it is even a tear it is incredibly minute.
the all seeing PT dx 
I got my minor tear scoped. Best decision ever for me. Dr ended up trimming my meniscus. I had about the best possible outcome. I would say I’ve had a 99% recovery. YMMV.
I was diagnosed after MRI with a decent tear - in my case, fluid was coming through the “valve” that was created by the tear and filling up a cyst on the medial side of my right knee. There’s no pain at all, and I suspect that it may have scarred over once the pressure equalised in the cyst. The surgeon was extremely reluctant to carry out any work due to the fact that it wouldn’t really do anything other than give me the possibility of wound breakdown as the cyst has synovial lining. The knee has never given me any real issues (including IMNZ yesterday). I hope you get a good result.
Three years ago I had my meniscus trimmed along with my ACL reconstructed.
Recovery took quite a while but three years later that knee is pretty much as good as new.
As an update, went to the PT today. My PT (not the intake person I saw last week) was a top AGer Ironman so he understands the pains of a triathlete very well. He looked me over and didn’t think it was a tear at all. He felt it is an overly tight quad causing my knee to track incorrectly, basically runner’s knee. He worked out my quad with a deep tissue massage, told me to stretch then tested my range of motion again. I was able to take the leg all the way back with no pain this time. So, it looks like I likely don’t have a tear after all!
I can get back to light cycling and swimming for now, holding off on running, but I’m glad it looks like no permanent or serious damage.
I was diagnosed after MRI with a decent tear - in my case, fluid was coming through the “valve” that was created by the tear and filling up a cyst on the medial side of my right knee. There’s no pain at all, and I suspect that it may have scarred over once the pressure equalised in the cyst. The surgeon was extremely reluctant to carry out any work due to the fact that it wouldn’t really do anything other than give me the possibility of wound breakdown as the cyst has synovial lining. The knee has never given me any real issues (including IMNZ yesterday). I hope you get a good result.
I had something similar years ago. It was the impetus for me getting into tri in the first place in fact. Knee was doing the typical “crunching” and pain associated with a torn meniscus and the MRI confirmed it was an unusual one (something about it separating on the inside but not tearing through the side? I don’t quite remember). Surgeon said he could trim it out and essentially leave me with just half a meniscus. It would solve the “crunching” when I walked but it wouldn’t solve the pain. I told him I wasn’t thrilled with this idea so he asked if I had a bike, because in many cases just building up strength in the surrounding muscles can help and cycling is a good no-impact way to build that strength. I told him I had a road bike (just a basic aluminum/sora bike) and that I never really rode it. He told he to start riding. So I did.
Eventually the knee pain went away, as did most (but not all) of the crunching. I still feel it when there is weather coming in though and on occasion after hard runs or rides it acts up a bit. I also can’t really do any “lunge” type exercises. Other than that, I haven’t really felt the need to have anyone look at the knee again. I can deal with the occasional pain from it with ibuprofen.