People always claim that sports are healthy, but they still cause many injuries. A common injury is a torn meniscus. This can keep you out of action for a long time.

What is a meniscus?

A meniscus is a crescent-shaped disc consisting of firm connective tissue and located in some joints, such as the knees. There are two in each knee. When this is torn, the cartilage discs are damaged.

What is their function?

They reduce friction, give the joints stability and lastly, they absorb much of the shock while walking or running. As a result, they tear easily. Athletes such as football and basketball players are particularly at risk, because the cracks are often caused by a sudden twisting movement. Furthermore, age also plays an important role, because as one gets older, the meniscuses become less elastic. A tear can even occur if you make a wrong movement.

What are the symptoms?

If the tear occurs acutely, such as during a twisting movement, excruciating pain is often felt and the knee swells. Sometimes a piece of cartilage is loose in the joint, making the knee difficult to move. The knee will still have difficulty supporting the body weight, resulting in difficulty standing on that leg.

Diagnosis

If you have these symptoms, the doctor will probably suspect a torn meniscus. To be sure of this, an MRI scan will be taken. Furthermore, the diagnosis can also be confirmed by arthroscopy, in which a fiber optic tube is inserted through an incision in the knee.

Therapy

Small tears on the outside of the meniscus where good blood flow occurs, often heal on their own with rest. But tears on the inside of the meniscus heal more slowly or not at all, necessitating surgery.During a meniscectomy, torn or torn pieces of the meniscus are removed. This is usually done with an arthroscope, but sometimes also with open knee surgery. During this operation, an attempt is made to leave as much of the damaged meniscus in place as possible, so that it can continue to protect the joint against shock and wear.After the operation, you will have difficulty supporting your knee and therefore walking. It is therefore wise to consult a physiotherapist who will assist with rehabilitation. This will be done with an extensive exercise program to regain strength in the muscles around the knee. If you have had to undergo open knee surgery, it will take several months before you can perform heavy work again. But after arthroscopy, work can often be resumed after a few weeks.

Outlook

Surgical repair of a torn meniscus is usually successful. But unfortunately, removing meniscal tissue does mean that the joint is less well protected. This only becomes detrimental later in life, because the risk of osteoarthritis then increases. Various less invasive repair and transplant techniques have also been developed. These are not always successful. An example of this is the meniscus repair where the surgeon places sutures to hold the edges together.