How To Repair Medial Meniscus Tear

How To Heal A Torn Meniscus Naturally

If y'all have, or doubtable you have a torn meniscus, and you're wondering how to heal a torn meniscus naturally, you've landed on the right post.

You may be wondering: Practise I need surgery? Tin can you heal a torn meniscus naturally? The short respond is: It depends.

What Is a Meniscus?

The meniscus is a fibrocartilage construction that sits on top of the tibia (lower leg bone). There is one on the medial (inside) aspect of the knee, ane on the lateral (exterior) aspect of the knee joint. It is shaped similar a C and provides some cushion and support for the human knee as it acts as a shock absorber.

How Can You Tear Your Meniscus?

A meniscus can be torn with particular injuries typically with sports, twisting, deep knee joint bending, rotating, or loftier-intensity blazon activities, which can sometimes cause some hurting and dysfunction. Also, it can simply gradually tear or clothing out through degeneration throughout the years every bit we age, which may or may non cause any symptoms whatsoever. Most people believe that if they come across a torn meniscus on MRI this automatically means that they may need to accept surgery to set the issue, but this is usually non the case. In fact, if you only get MRIs of people over age 35, most people would likely have a meniscal tear, and most of those folks volition not have whatever symptoms of genu pain whatsoever (1).

Meniscal Surgery Outcomes and Complications

Again, many people believe that meniscal surgery is needed if a meniscal tear is constitute on MRI and yous have some knee joint pain. All the same, what is the evidence that having a meniscal surgery would assist, and what are the types of meniscal surgeries? Nearly ninety-six per centum of the meniscal surgeries that are performed currently are meniscectomies, where the part of the meniscus that is torn or injured is cut and removed.

This is despite many times this beingness called a meniscal "repair." Another blazon of surgery, which is rarer, which is a true meniscal repair is where parts of the meniscus are sewn back together to endeavor to get that meniscus to heal upwards rather than removing a piece of tissue. Most of the inquiry on arthroscopic surgery, (going in with a scope) for partial meniscectomy shows that the surgery does not work. There was a 2022 written report showing that it could not beat concrete therapy (ii).

At that place is another study that showed that there was no departure from a faux surgery where you only went in with a scope and performed no procedure (three). Some other study showed that surgery was no meliorate than placebo therapy even when the patient had locking and mechanical-blazon symptoms with a meniscal tear (4). There is even further evidence that suggests that meniscal surgery does not work and can even exist harmful to the knee, every bit removing parts of the meniscus alters the biomechanics of the knee, puts more stress and clothing on the cartilage, progressing arthritis at a much faster rate, and, more than commonly, leads to a knee joint replacement (5,6).

There is another study that showed patients that had meniscal surgery were 2.5 times more likely compared to the genu without surgery, fifty-fifty if it had a meniscus tear, to require human knee replacement (seven,8). Are in that location any patients that should get this blazon of surgery? At that place may be a scattering of folks that do have some truthful mechanical clicking from a specific flap or saucepan-handle tear of the meniscus that are not getting ameliorate with concrete therapy or bourgeois measures but that is few and far between whereas right now meniscectomy is the about common constituent orthopedic surgery despite having multiple research papers showing that it does non work and makes you worse. A true meniscal repair sounds like a much better thought and only is less commonly performed. It usually only tin can be performed on folks without arthritis, younger people, and only with specific types of tears.

Types of Meniscal tears

Meniscal tears come up in a variety of different types, which can impact potential treatments, symptoms or relevance.

One blazon of tear is a radial tear, which is only a left to correct tear across the meniscus (see Figure 2 – top row, middle). These are the about common types. Nigh commonly they are in what nosotros call the white zone of the meniscus where it does not become much blood supply. Thus they are hard to heal naturally, and so if you see a surgeon they volition probable endeavour to cutting this function out despite the evidence saying that a meniscectomy does not work.

The side by side type of tear is a horizontal tear, which is basically an up and downwardly or front to back tear in the meniscus (run into Effigy 2 – top row, left). Many times these tears are in a portion of the meniscus that does get claret supply so they could potentially heal on its own. If they practice not heal naturally and so surgical repair can sometimes be tried to help.
The next blazon of tear is a circuitous tear where y'all have a combination of different tears where it tin be torn in multiple areas of the knee joint (see Effigy ii – bottom row, eye). Oftentimes when the surgeon sees these, they would attempt a meniscectomy again because most of the time these are difficult for them to try to repair.
Next type of tear is an intrasubstance tear. Usually these are but degenerative tears in the midportion of the meniscus. Typically, surgeons will not even try to operate on these. After age 30, these are very mutual findings of a meniscal tear on MRI, which is of little consequence.
Some other type of tear is a bucket-handle tear. This is a tear where the meniscus is torn and flipped over like a bucket-handle (run across Figure 2 – lesser row, left). These sometimes can cause some catching or alter the motion of the genu. If that is the example and so those would be the rare blazon of tear that actually would demand surgery.
The next type of tear is a flap tear where a pocket-sized piece of meniscus can exist torn and flipped over (run across Effigy ii – bottom row, right). Sometimes this tin cause some catching of the knee, sometimes information technology does not hurt. If there is no catching in the knee, then it would non warrant any surgery to remove that part of the meniscus. If it is causing some catching or altering motion of the knee that might be a rare case where surgery may be indicated.
Lastly, another rare blazon of tear is a tear in the root of the meniscus, which was the back function of the meniscus that anchors it onto the tibia. Depending on the nature of this tear, this one can be something that may need some surgical repair to concord information technology down, merely again meniscectomy would not be a good choice for this as this tin can increasingly make the meniscus more unstable.
The meniscus also can be what is chosen extruded, where it sticks out the joint either from natural tearing or from after a meniscectomy. When a meniscus extrudes afterwards surgery information technology is more abrupt and tends to progress arthritis much faster, whereas if it happens naturally, it is more of a gradual change that your body can many times adapt to.

Natural Remedies For a Torn Meniscus

If you accept human knee pain and have been told you accept a suspected meniscal tear either from an test or from MRI, much of the time this can heal on its ain with four-6 weeks of rest, doing some physical therapy that would focus on some range of motion and strengthening exercises and correcting any biomechanical problems that may stem from the core, back, hips or the ankles. Nutritional support such as only working on a healthy diet, reducing inflammation in the torso, taking some turmeric, fish oil, glucosamine, and chondroitin, can help knee pain and inflammation besides.

Treatments For A Meniscal Tear Without Surgery

If you get to most hurting practices if you neglect physical therapy and surgery is not recommended, they may recommend a steroid injection, which tin help temporarily reduce inflammation in and around the knee and meniscus, just this is not brash as steroids every bit we know can cause damage to the joint cartilage, inhibit healing, and has a host of other negative side effects.
An injection of something called hyaluronic acrid, which is a naturally occuring substance that makes up role of the lubricating fluid of the knee joint, could be used for temporary hurting relief. Information technology does not help repair the area simply may provide a few months of symptomatic do good if in that location is not severe arthritis in the knee.
If y'all actually want to try and get the trunk to heal that meniscus on its ain when residuum and physical therapy has not do the chore, PRP has excellent evidence that information technology helps with meniscal injuries too as mild to moderate arthritis that tin be associated with these issues. PRP, when used in the right hands, should be injected precisely with ultrasound guidance into the torn parts of the meniscus, into whatsoever ligaments or tendons that may be injured or loose, and into the human knee articulation itself for optimal results. Many practitioners just inject into the knee, which notwithstanding can assist quite a bit only not as much as if a more thorough approach is taken. In that location are more than 25 high level studies showing PRP helps with knee pain (Orthopedic Bone Marrow Stalk Cell Historical Timeline (netdna-ssl.com)).
Os marrow concentrate that contains the patients stem cells can also exist used to promote the body'southward healing in more severe meniscal tears or if there are meniscal tears with more moderate to severe arthritis. There are a few randomized control trials that show that this can be helpful for that besides (ix-eleven). Again, yous desire to have a thorough skilled approach to brand sure that prototype guidance is used, and all of the damaged parts of the meniscus and associated areas of the human knee such as tendons, ligaments, and joints are injected as well.

The latter two options are what we focus on at the Centeno-Schultz Clinic, promoting the torso'due south ability to heal itself with highly specific paradigm-guided procedures that use the body's ain PRP and os marrow concentrate. These Interventional Orthopedic procedures, performed by board certified specially trained physicians maintain the natural anatomy and structure of the articulation, and have more enquiry that is positive than meniscal surgeries. On the other hand, the research on Meniscal surgery shows that except for the rare cases of a flap or saucepan-handle tear that can cause mechanical symptoms the surgery is largely ineffective.

Bottom Line

Meniscal tears are mutual findings in the articulatio genus, which many times are of little clinical significance.

If a meniscal tear is associated with pain, depending on the tear, virtually of these can be handled with nonsurgical treatment measures. When the traditional measures of rest, physical therapy, nutrition and supplements neglect, then PRP and bone marrow concentrate for more severe problems tin be a keen alternative to assistance the torso heal itself, reducing pain, keeping the natural anatomy, and reducing the chance for future surgeries. Meniscal surgery, despite existence the most common orthopedic surgery has little bear witness to support information technology and actually good testify to suggest that we should eliminate the majority of these types of surgeries. If you lot or anyone you know has a meniscal tear or knee hurting and are interested to encounter if yous are a candidate for our non-surgical treatment for knees, please contact us. We are world experts at helping the body heal itself through regenerative measures for orthopedic problems.

References

(1) Risberg MA. Degenerative meniscus tears should be looked upon as wrinkles with age—and should be treated appropriately. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2014;48:741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-093568

(2) Katz JN, Brophy RH, Chaisson CE, et al. Surgery versus concrete therapy for a meniscal tear and osteoarthritis [published correction appears in N Engl J Med. 2022 Aug fifteen;369(seven):683].Northward Engl J Med. 2022;368(18):1675–1684. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1301408

(3) Sihvonen R, Paavola Thousand, Malmivaara A, Itälä A, Joukainen A, Nurmi H, Kalske J, Järvinen TL; Finnish Degenerative Meniscal Lesion Study (Fidelity) Group. Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy versus sham surgery for a degenerative meniscal tear. N Engl J Med. 2022 Dec 26;369(26):2515-24. doi: x.1056/NEJMoa1305189.

(4) Sihvonen R, Englund One thousand, Turkiewicz A, Järvinen TL; Finnish Degenerative Meniscal Lesion Study Group. Mechanical Symptoms and Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy in Patients With Degenerative Meniscus Tear: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2022 April 5;164(7):449-55. doi: x.7326/M15-0899.

(5) Netravali NA, Giori NJ, Andriacchi TP. Partial medial meniscectomy and rotational differences at the knee during walking. J Biomech. 2010 Nov 16;43(15):2948-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2010.07.013.

(6) Cohen SB, Short CP, O'Hagan T, Wu HT, Morrison WB, Zoga Air-conditioning. The effect of meniscal tears on cartilage loss of the knee: findings on serial MRIs. Phys Sportsmed. 2022 Sep;xl(3):66-76. doi: 10.3810/psm.2012.09.1983.

(vii) Longo UG, Ciuffreda Thousand, Candela Five, Rizzello G, D'Andrea V, Mannering N, Berton A, Salvatore G, Denaro V. Knee joint Osteoarthritis after Arthroscopic Fractional Meniscectomy: Prevalence and Progression of Radiographic Changes after 5 to 12 Years Compared with Contralateral Human knee. J Human knee Surg. 2022 May;32(5):407-413. doi: 10.1055/due south-0038-1646926.

(8) Katz JN, Shrestha S, Losina E, Jones MH, Marx RG, Mandl LA, Levy BA, MacFarlane LA, Spindler KP, Silva GS; MeTeOR Investigators, Collins JE. Five-twelvemonth effect of operative and non-operative direction of meniscal tear in persons greater than 45 years sometime. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022 Aug 20. doi: 10.1002/art.41082.

(ix) Centeno C, Sheinkop Yard, Dodson E, Stemper I, Williams C, Hyzy M, Ichim T, Freeman One thousand. A specific protocol of autologous bone marrow concentrate and platelet products versus exercise therapy for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial with ii year follow-up. J Transl Med. 2022 Dec 13;16(1):355. doi: 10.1186/s12967-018-1736-viii. PMID: 30545387; PMCID: PMC6293635.

(10) Hernigou P, Bouthors C, Bastard C, Flouzat Lachaniette CH, Rouard H, Dubory A. Subchondral bone or intra-articular injection of bone marrow concentrate mesenchymal stalk cells in bilateral knee osteoarthritis: what better postpone knee arthroplasty at xv years? A randomized study. Int Orthop. 2022 Jul ii. doi: 10.1007/s00264-020-04687-vii. Epub alee of print. PMID: 32617651.

(eleven) Hernigou P, Delambre J, Quiennec Southward, Poignard A. Human os marrow mesenchymal stalk jail cell injection in subchondral lesions of human knee osteoarthritis: a prospective randomized study versus contralateral arthroplasty at a hateful fifteen year follow-upward. Int Orthop. 2022 Apr 23. doi: ten.1007/s00264-020-04571-4. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32322943.