I was told that I have a slightly torn meniscus on my left knee, which is on the inside area of the knee. Apparently it has been this way for over a year. I notice when climbing that I need to be careful or else I'll stress it when high stepping on it, and it also takes time to 'warm up' for any heavy climbing when mountain biking.

One doc said if I can do most things with it then I should avoid any surgery. However, one of my friends had the same problem and he told me that it turned out well after going under the knife. So, I'm confused. Any experiences and advice with this type of injury and what you did would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ive had three knee surgeries now, more serious than yours , I come back stronger everytime, In your case the surgery would not be that bad, The tear will continue to irritate you and you will continue to guard it. Guarding it only leads to further injury Usually to the good knee.

Arthrospcopic is pretty simple for a tear, They will just go in 2 to 3 holes, You can have a femoral block and watch it on the video monitors, its cool. You will go home same day and you will walk out of there, mabye with a crutch, Pre surgery rehab with emphasis on range of motion and Hamstrings, and a bit on the medial quad will speed your recovery. I was skiing groomers 2 weeks out of arthroscopic clean up, Not reccomended but I was being mellow. I was 100% about 6 weeks out of arthroscopic, and it made a huge difference. Its all about your rehab and listening to therapists. After rehab when your doctor says go for it, He is telling you its ok, It will all be in your head


My ski career has been retarded, Its part of the buiseness, done 3 now and am stronger than ever and will probablly do another one playing the games I play, but the surgeries are only getting better and recovery is getting quicker

Good luck to ya, its not as bad as you think

I have had two surgeries on my right knee. Your knee will have a hard time healing if ever healing if you don't stay off of it and take it easy for a while. The surgery will fix it, but you will also lose a certain % of your meniscus. I have had good results with mine, but I can tell a difference between my knees.
If you don't ever get it taken care of though it can just continually get worse and you may eventually have to have your entire meniscus removed(Worst Case Scenario). Mind you I am not a doctor lol
This is just my experience with it.

Tradster:

Your description of your injury lacks precision to allow for truly meaningful comment.

I don't know if your injury causes "just pain" or there is malfunctioning within the joint itself, e.g. popping, grinding, slipping, dislocation, etc.

In other words, are you considering surgery just to avoid transient, intermittent pain that goes away?

Or is something more serious happening within the joint itself under the stress of climbing?

The dichotomy suggests the answer.

I've had "pain" in my knees for years. The worst pain is from anachronistic, meatball knee surgery in 1964, supposedly for a torn meniscus (? but I was just a kid and doctors in that day never explained themselves, especially to kids?. The other pain is from a torn medial collateral ligament in 1995, diagnosed with an MRI but not surgically treated. Surgery to avoid this type of pain makes no sense at all, in my humble opinion.

Terry:

It would be for intermittent pain. It doesn't slip, grind, pop or dislocate. It just causes pain when it is heavily stressed at times. Occasionally it does cause a general low grade background type pain. I worry more that it would degenerate and weaken, but more than one doc has said I have arthritis anyway (56 y.o.)and half of it between the joints is gone.

It doesn't cause me any real problem when hiking or walking, but those high steps when climbing and steep hill climbs on my bike cause a very tender sensation (like it is going to tear more) and then I have to watch how I am stressing it...however, it hasn't affected my endurance (mountain bike 30 miles, gain 3200 feet to 7.3K elevation, hard descents, etc all in one day as an example.)

I am leary of an operation, but I'd like to stay active as long as possible. I gave up running and alpine skiing a long time ago because of my knees.

I had the same exact tear in my knee in 2003, it didn't bother me much only when I a stretched high, like you said. I ended up having surgery on it and it went very well. Arthroscopic surgery is a very simple and safe procedure. I walked out of the hospital under my own power, started rehab two weeks later and was running within four weeks. Rehab only lasted about 5 weeks total for me before I was back to football.
I say go for it but I understand that any amount of surgery is inconvenient and intimating. Also, getting a 2nd and third opinion is probably a good idea.

Wow, I didn't realize this was such a common issue.

England thanks for the thread you started up. I just skimmed through it and will definitely be going back to read through all of the replies thoroughly.

Tradster, my advice would be to get a few different opinions from several doctors if you can. I had my meniscus pinned when I was younger under the assumption that the surgery would last at least 5-10 years. Within two years after having surgery, my meniscus had torn again and was "popping out" about once every 2 months.

Technically the part of the meniscus that was torn was sliding over the ball of my femur locking the knee in place. I would then have to straighten my leg and force everything back into place. This is called a bucket handle tear. I lived with this for nearly 10 years. UNTIL this past August.

I was doing some bouldering and went for a drop knee and POP, it came "out" again. By then I had developed standard procedure for putting it back in. That didn't work. Long story short, my knee was lock and it wasn't going back. So I went to a arthroscopic surgeon who put me under the knife with the next 3 days and had a portion of the medial meniscus removed.

Right now I am on the road to recovery (more accurately the stationary bike to recovery).

So my 2 cents. If its minor and they are just going to pin it, weigh in the fact that there is a chance the it re-tears. If they think part of it needs to be removed...well I get back to you with my results in a few months.

I was diagnosed w/a torn meniscus many, many years ago. I was treated by the orthopedic surgeon who, at the time, was the Indianapolis Colts' surgeon so I think he knew a thing or two about sports-related injuries.

Anyway, I was told that the cartilage could either be repaired or removed. Repairing it would require quite a bit of recovery time (2-4 months if I recall correctly) but it would, most likely, prevent future issues. Removing the cartilage would require very little time for recovery but would, most likely, result in knee problems later in life. Whether or not it could be repaired was dependent on how much damage was already done. And, I was told, doing nothing would result in the cartilage slowly being destroyed to the point that it would have to be removed at some point in the not too distant future.

When I got the knee 'scoped, it was discovered that I had a hereditary issue that mimicked the symptoms of torn meniscus. So, I don't have any experience with the actual repair or removal but thought I'd share the information I was given.

If you can deal with it without surgery, you probably should. Even minor surgery can take months to recover from and be extremely painful. I got my knee done and it was about a 6 month recovery. The first week of recovery was the worst. The post op swelling was one of the worst pains in my life, and i've had some gruesome injuries!

Recovery time will be based on how invasive it is... If you have arthritis, like I did, it will probably be more serious than just a quick meniscus clean up. They drilled a bunch of holes in my knee cap to stimulate scar tissue growth to protect the bone on bone areas... And my hard cartilage needed to be smoothed out as well. My MRI showed repeated meniscus tears (from years of skateboarding), but it was the hard cartilage that was affecting the joint. My knee would grind and collapse, leaving my no choice but to get it fixed. Now that it's better I'm glad I did it...

If it is really hurting your performance, go for it... you'll be back on the rock by spring.

I am not an orthopedist, but I am a doctor. The advice from your physician is unbiased and educated, plus he knows your case. My first instinct would be to follow his advice. It can't hurt to get maybe one second opinion, but don't try to convince somebody to do surgery, as that may not be the best decision.
If you already have cartilage loss, I would recommend glucosamine 1500mg plus chondroitin 1200mg daily. This is very low risk and reduces the rate of cartilage loss in the knee. It probably won't eliminate the problem with your meniscus.
Take heart that technology in joint surgery is advancing rapidly, and there's a lot to be said for "kicking the can down the road."
Someday they will harvest your stem cells and grow you some new cartilage.

Hey Tradsterosa, if you think this is going to get you out of heading up Babo with me this fall, think again... =)

Hey Daryl:

I will be up for Babo this fall and we will have fun. How about Mendoza Canyon...Elephant's Trunk or Wiley Javalina? Those are some nice climbs. Will you be at the Bean Fest? If so, see you there!

Yes, i should be there. We'll definitely talk more about it then. Sorry to hear about your knee.. i'm having similar problems with my left knee but i don't know for certain it's the meniscus. It's just popping "around" and hurts every now and then for reasons i can't seem to nail down. It's pretty random as far as i can tell... i'm thinking it's from all the down-hiking with full pack, etc. =/

First off, so sorry to hear of your injury. A good buddy of mine had what sounds like almost exactly what you're dealing with. What would happen with him is that his knee would lock up, like stuck in a bent position. He had surgery. He had a speedy recovery and was back at it in 5-6 weeks. He says he has no regrets.

I tore the meniscus in my left knee playing basketball in 2003. It was a very painful injury, but the pain lessened with time, so I did not have surgery. However, even after the pain subsided, my knee would lock up frequently, requiring me to reverse whatever motion made it lock up. It would release, but in a painful manner.

When this became unmanageable and interfered with pretty much any activity (climbing, playing b-ball, sitting at a desk), I opted for surgery. I had arthroscopic surgery to remove the torn portion of the meniscus. Since that surgery in 2004, I have had absolutely no problems with that knee, and frankly cannot tell a difference between it and my healthy right knee. That doesn't mean I won't feel the difference eventually, as they did remove cartilage. I should also mention that I was only 26 at the time of surgery. I am 31 now and so far glad I opted for surgery. My tear was very large...

The arthroscopy is so minimally invasive. If yours is a small tear as you say, your post-op prognosis would seem quite good.

To what degree does the injury limit/interfere with your activity? Make your decision based on that. Also, I don't know your age. That may be a factor.

Best of luck to you.

Having had both of my knees worked on, and having had the same issue on one (partially torn miniscus that locks up sometimes), I have to say get surgury. It sucks, its expensive, rehab sucks, time away from your passions sucks.
However, in the long run, It will make you stronger, happier, and less prone to worse injuries. I was ski racing competatively when my torn meniscus became an issue. I didnt even know it, but when we went back and looked over training films it became clear that my body had been protecting the knee without my knowledge. The problem with this was that the knee no longer functioned 100% "correctly" and the compensations my body made put other, more important things at risk (ACL and MCL).
After the surgury and rehab, my skiing improved, my knee stopped hurting and locking, and my flexibility increased dramatically. This was most evident in climbing when I had to get high feet.

My advice: Find a doctor who specialized in Athlete's knees. My doctor did Navy Seal knee reconstructions. The other one was worked on by the same guy who does the Oakland Raiders, SJ Sharks, and many Stanford athletes. Your standard ortho focuses on getting the knee functional. This was not enough for me. I needed it to function under high stress/ athletic brutal activity. I also searched for PTs that worked with high end athletes. I feel that the emphasis on athletic performance gave me a result that was as good as new, if not better.

Trust me, there is a huge range of skill/ competence in the orthopedic field. It ranges from cutting edge to complete hacks (a buddy had his platella broken in half during an ACL reconstruction. The dr basically tried to cover up his mistake) DO RESEARCH on the doctors you choose. Get second opinions. Make sure you relay your desires to remain active and ask them specifically if they have experience/ confidence in what you are asking for. The best doctors often have long wait lists. It is worth it. They are the best and people want to see them for a reason.

Oh. The "if you can do most things then leave it" is total crap in my book. If it is affecting your passion or life negatively at all, then do something about it. There are orthos out there that really can get you back to 100%. You may not even realize how much you are actually missing (I didnt). You sound active so do yourself a favor and see experts. The ortho that does 60 yo knees that only need to walk 1 mile/ day is not the one for you. Go to the best. Even if it takes 6 months/ 1 year. It is worth it.

If you have more questions for someone who has gone through this, feel free to email me at ndaiss at gmail dot com.

My husband had the same problem in his right knee - had it for years - and finally one day the torn piece flipped and he had to go to the doc. They did arthroscopic on him and removed the meniscus, said it would have been too difficult to try to fix it and that it probably wouldn't heal because of his age (33 at the time). He's gone back to the doc two years later to have it checked, it feels really good to him, but the doc says he definitely has the start of osteoarthritis and will probably be bound for a knee replacement at some point in the future...

My husband said to definitely consult a doctor about your options - the issue with letting it go is that if it's only a small tear - they may be able to fix it now without removing anything - if you let it go it may tear all the way and then who knows what might happen. He also said that when your knee does go - it can tear other things - ACL, MCL, etc....

Good overall info, as I sit here with an ice pack on my knee at 7am.... I've been trying to rehab an unknown knee problem on my own and I'm just about to give up.

about 1.5yrs I had a 1cm radial complex tear posterior in my left new. My doc wanted to remove this one (I found the best orthopedic surgeon I could find- the guy works with the US Ski/board team so he see's a lot of knees). The surgery was easy as was the recovery followed his advise to a tee. Waited for 6wk to climb and withing 6 wks and 1 day after surgery was back climbing just as strong as ever.

Unfortunately doing a knee drop on an overhanging route in Sardinia I tore the same knee. Saw him a couple of days ago and this time his advise was lets wait and see..... he really doesn't want to go in again.

Moral of the long winded story..... find the best orthopedic surgeon you can find who is used to working with athletes, get an MRI and listen to what the doc says. Make your decision but use the facts that the doc gives you based on your own personal case.