torn meniscus -- surgery or not?

[mankato]

Went to the orthopedic surgeon this morning. MRI shows tear in the posterior horn of meniscus. He says it will not heal on it's own, and I should have arthroscopic surgery to remove that part of the cartilage. My concern is that I've read that if cartilage is removed, it means almost certain arthritis in the future. Once the cartilage is gone, it's gone for good and you can't get it back.

 

Right after the injury, I had really bad cracking/popping/clicking noises in the knee. That was about six weeks ago. I've recovered much of my strength and the noises/crunching have mostly stopped. But still have pain when hiking or biking longer distances. Haven't tried climbing again yet.

 

So I'm not sure if I should just wait and try and rehab it on my own, or go under the knife and risk arthritis later on or what. Difficult decision to make for me.

 

Add into the mix that my insurance sucks so I will be paying for much of the procedure on my own.

 

Anyone been through this? Have you had a partial meniscus removal, and how did it work out for you?

 

Thanks for any responses.

[Crillz]

Last summer I had the same thing. Long hiking days is what seemed to bother it the most (though I'm not sure how I tore it, it had been messed up for a while, probably the many motox crashes in my younger and cooler days).

 

The surgery is supposed to be simple, but there is always risk, as I got a blood clot which added months to the recovery time. Regardless of what the doctor says, I would plan on 4-6 months plus before you have full confidence in your knee again (more if complications occur).

 

As far as you getting the surgery - odds are it will help. You will likely get arthritis anyway, and the torn part of the meniscus is doing very little good for your knee.

 

1 year later, my scoped right knee is pretty good, and now that my leg is full strength again, I'm NOW glad I did it, but I wasn't so glad for about 6+ months after surgery. My left knee is messed up too, and I DON'T plan on getting surgery any time soon (because of my experience). If I go just a bit slower, and occassional ibuprofen it seems to be fine.

 

Advice - if you get the surgery do it in whichever season you are willing to give up for the year.

 

 

[willstrickland]

I torn my lateral in the posterior about 5 years ago. Got the MRI, got the artho recommendation. There was no signficant noise, or locking up in the joint other than right when it happened, and although I had really good insurance at the time, I waited and never had the surgery.

 

If I go pound out long approaches a few days in a row it will start aching, otherwise I don't notice it and I road bike and climb on it alot. Might have a little ache there a few times a year for a day or two at a time. My concern was much the same as yours...no guarantee that it was repairable with the other option being to cut out the damaged section. Since there was no way to know what would happen until they got the scope in there, no way of knowing whether the tear was radial, transverse, etc I declined figuring I could always get it done later if it became a problem.

 

No regrets on my choice.

[layton]

just walk it off

 

actually, I'd probably opt for the surgery then take a crapload of glucosamine, shine a cold laser in that sucker

[ryland_moore]

I tore my meniscus up on the saddle overlooking Spray Park on Rainier a few years ago. Turns out the reason it partially tore was becasue I had a complete tear of my ACL from Denali but did not know it (another story). Anyway, I hopped out to the car, went to the doc on Monday, had it scoped on Tuesday and a week later was dancing in celebration for St. Patrick's day. I climbed on it that summer (still without the ACL) and have not had any problems with it since. Never had any pain after the initial tear. I do get pain from where the ACL was replaced in the front of my knee when I sit on my knees, but the meniscus surgery was incredibly easy compared to the ACL surgery. My two cents.