Will a knee brace help a torn meniscus? Yes. 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.
Knee braces are recommended for those with meniscus tears or OA as they help reduce stress on the joints which knee sleeves don't. Knee braces are used for sports injuries to protect against further damage and provide stability when exercising.
Compression sleeves are often the best knee brace for a torn meniscus if you also suffer from arthritic knees or from a degenerative condition. They are also a good choice for an athlete at the end of the rehabilitation process and requiring compression therapy to reduce pain and promote more rapid healing.
Meniscus tears are the most frequently treated knee injuries. Recovery will take about 6 to 8 weeks if your meniscus tear is treated conservatively, without surgery. If your symptoms persist after 3 months or your symptoms become significant, your doctor may recommend surgery to repair the tear.
You must wear the hinged-‐knee brace for the first 6 weeks. This brace protects the meniscus repair because it prevents you from bending the knee past 90 degrees.
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.
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. Ice. Ice can reduce knee pain and swelling.
Continuing to walk on the affected leg can aggravate your symptoms, making pain and stiffness worse in as little as a few days. Plus, suffering a torn meniscus may also increase your risk of complications, like developing osteoarthritis in that knee.
Your doctor may recommend the RICE regimen—rest, ice, compression, and elevation—to treat a meniscus tear. Resting your knee can help relieve your symptoms. Your doctor may suggest using a cane for a few weeks to keep weight off your knee and to stay away from physical activity that may have contributed to the injury.
If you have a small tear at the outer edge of the meniscus (in what doctors call the red zone), you may want to try home treatment. These tears often heal with rest. If you have a moderate to large tear at the outer edge of the meniscus (red zone), you may want to think about surgery.
A compression sleeve is helpful in supporting meniscus tears to aid in reducing the inflammation, to relieve pain and provide stability following an injury. Compression sleeves are supportive knee braces for the entire knee joint. Knee sleeves or knee braces are a great option to help your knee.
Some exercises are too strenuous for people with meniscus tears. A person should not: do deep squats. do any exercise that involves pivoting or that otherwise twists the knee.
If not treated, part of the meniscus may come loose and slip into the joint. You may need surgery to restore full knee function. Untreated meniscus tears can increase in size and lead to complications, such as arthritis.
Range of motion may be limited due to pain, swelling, and/or mechanical limits from the tear. Daily activities such as walking up and down the stairs, walking down a hill, kneeling, and squatting are often made difficult due to increased pain in the knee.
A cortisone shot can help decrease the inflammation and pain caused by a torn meniscus. A cortisone shot usually does not help in healing of the meniscus and, hence, does not improve any mechanical symptoms. If a meniscus is repairable, then a cortisone shot is not preferred as it may impair healing of the meniscus.
Most meniscal tears improve with time and physiotherapy. Physiotherapy will include load modification e.g. reducing your running and walking and reduction or avoidance of the movements and activities that make your pain or swelling worse. This advice will also be accompanied with a comprehensive exercise programme.
Small tears often heal on their own, while others may require arthroscopic surgery. Most people fully recover from a torn meniscus and can get back to doing their favorite activities without knee pain.
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.
Too much cold will keep your injury in the same state - slowing down the healing process. This can sometimes make chronic injuries linger even longer. Heat (Circulation Boost) should be used when you suffer from a chronic, tight or stiff meniscus injury and after you reduce swelling, pain and inflammation with cold.
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.
X-rays. Even though x-rays do not show meniscus tears, they may indicate other knee pain causes, such as osteoarthritis. MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging). This test creates better images of the soft tissues of your knee joint, like a meniscus.
Radial Meniscus Tear
These types of tears are found in the avascular area of the meniscus, which means there is no blood flowing to this area. Because of this, it's exceedingly difficult for this type of injury to heal naturally.