Ordinarily, your doctor or physical therapist will ask you to reduce your sports activities while your meniscus tear heals. Healing could take between four and eight weeks. However, the time depends on the severity and position of the tear.
Symptoms may go away but can come back from overuse or when you do activities that involve twisting. The pain may come and go over a period of years if the tear isn't treated. Larger tears usually cause more pain and immediate swelling and stiffness. Pieces of the torn meniscus can float into the joint space.
Tears that won't heal
The outside of the meniscus has a rich blood supply and access to blood cells that help regenerate new meniscus tissue and spur healing. The inside of the meniscus, however, is blood-poor and may take a long time to heal on its own, if it ever does.
While a meniscus tear can seem like a minor injury with only a little pain because you can still walk, but left untreated it can interfere with your ability to exercise and play sports; and can cause meniscus cartilage fragments in the joint which can lead to the knee locking and catching.
But most horizontal, long-standing, and degenerative tears—those caused by years of wear and tear—can't be fixed. For these kinds of tears, you may need to have part or all of the meniscus removed. You may want to have surgery if your knee pain is too great or if you are unable to do daily activities.
The vascular portion is called the “red zone” due to the presence of capillaries in the meniscal tissue. The avascular portion is called the “white zone” due to its absence of blood supply. Red zone tears have the potential to heal and white zone tears will likely never heal.
Ordinarily, your doctor or physical therapist will ask you to reduce your sports activities while your meniscus tear heals. Healing could take between four and eight weeks. However, the time depends on the severity and position of the tear.
Complications. A torn meniscus can lead to a feeling of your knee giving way, inability to move your knee as you usually do or persistent knee pain. You might be more likely to develop osteoarthritis in the injured knee.
The injury won't heal on its own, which means it may continue getting worse without proper care. For example, a partial tear may continue to worsen until it's a complete tear. Continuing to walk on the affected leg can aggravate your symptoms, making pain and stiffness worse in as little as a few days.
So unfortunately, having a meniscal tear which requires surgery may raise your risk of getting arthritis later in life. It has also been shown that a knee that has undergone meniscus surgery has weaker thigh muscles and poorer quality of cartilage 4 years after the surgery [3].
For people with less severe tears, doctors may recommend gentle exercises. It is normal for these exercises to cause a little discomfort. If any exercise causes pain, however, stop doing it.
Avoid activities that aggravate your knee pain, especially any activity that causes you to twist, rotate or pivot your knee. If your pain is severe, using crutches can take pressure off your knee and promote healing.
Since cartilage can't regrow, a lack of cartilage often plays a major role in knee joint malfunctions and knee pain — and may subsequently lead to joint replacement. However, at Penn Medicine, there are options to ease your pain and prevent or delay the onset of arthritis which may delay having your knee replaced.
Although knee braces do not heal or treat your meniscus tear directly, they can provide extra support and stability for your knee while your meniscus injury heals. A good brace will protect your knee and take the pressure off your meniscus, allowing it to rest.
You will have a physical examination to find out if you have a torn meniscus and to rule out other knee injuries. Your doctor will check both knees for tenderness, range of motion, and knee stability. X-rays are usually done. Based on your symptoms and the physical examination, your doctor may diagnose a meniscus tear.
Unfortunately, only a minority of meniscal tears are actually repairable. The repair rate often quoted in the literature is about 10 to 15%.
Simply put, our blood moves healing factors to damaged tissues, which are then able to repair themselves. This means that any part of the body that has a limited circulation of blood will have a very limited ability to heal itself. The meniscus is one of those areas with a very limited blood supply.
Physical therapy can help with strengthening your muscles and helping your tissue and cartilage to heal. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average recovery time for a torn meniscus is between 4 to 8 weeks.
Symptoms of a meniscus tear may be different for each person, but some of the most common symptoms are: Pain in the knee joint: usually on the inside (medial), outside (lateral) or back of the knee. Swelling. Catching or locking of the knee joint.
Cycling is a good exercise for recovery from a meniscus tear, as it is a very low impact and straight-lined exercise. Issues may arise if the range of movement of the knee is very limited by the injury and swelling and unable to complete the revolution of the pedal smoothly.