Once your injury has healed, you will need to exercise to recover and prevent complications. Your doctor and physical therapist can review your personal medical history with you to decide if walking is a good exercise option or if your risk of re-injury is too high to walk.
Your meniscus, which is a piece of cartilage shaped like the letter "C," acts as a shock absorber, because it helps lubricate your joint and limits your range of motion to protect against injury.
Menisci are found in several joints in the body including the knees. A torn meniscus in the knee is a common injury. In most cases, meniscus tears are caused by twisting, over extending the knee, or doing other abrupt movements that place excessive stress on the cartilage.
Part of your treatment plan is to determine the movements that caused the tear, so that you can avoid re-tearing it in the future. The initial treatment for a meniscus tear is to apply ice, elevate and rest the knee to reduce pain and inflammation.
Before utilizing more sophisticated imaging, your doctor may guide you through a series of movements to test the overall mobility of the knee joint and pinpoint the underlying knee injury. In this way, your doctor can also rule out other possible knee injuries and conditions. The circumduction knee test also known as the McMurray test is used to demonstrate knee locking, knee clicking, pain, general mobility limitations, and instability.
These loose bodies could be small pieces of bone, cartilage, or other tissues. A loose body in the knee will prevent the knee from moving optimally and may also cause the knee to catch and lock up.
A torn meniscus is one of the most common knee injuries we treat. The answer to this question depends on the severity of the meniscus injury. It is also important to note that the meniscus receives only minimal blood flow. This is one of the reasons a meniscus tear will not normally heal itself without surgery or treatment -- especially if the tear is more than one centimeter 4 in length.
Physical therapy can be used to add flexibility and strengthen the knee joint and surrounding tissues. This may result in the aforementioned knee locking and knee popping symptoms, as well as limiting the overall knee range of motion. Similarly, studies have repeatedly shown that meniscal damage 5 from a surgically untreated knee injury or meniscus tear may increase your chances of developing radiographic osteoarthritis later in life.
Patients often eventually choose to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus, sometimes years after the injury. Is meniscus surgery your best option, or should you first consider meniscus physical therapy?
At Sports Medicine Oregon, we pride ourselves on taking a personalized approach to your meniscus tear injury and then designing a plan of action. Whether your meniscus tear is the result of a sports injury, accident, or wear and tear over time, there are many treatment options to choose from. Depending on the severity of the injury, your age, activity level, and other factors, meniscus tear physical therapy may be the right treatment option for your meniscus injury.
Initially, these meniscus tear exercises will focus on restoring knee flexibility, followed by strengthening the surrounding tissues to increase stability. If you do undergo meniscus tear surgery, your treatment plan will include post-surgical meniscus tear exercises as well. At Sports Medicine Oregon, we are here to support joint health, without getting in the way of what your body does best. Nonetheless, meniscus tear surgery is often the best option to treat your full or partially torn meniscus and restore healthy function.
Arthroscopic meniscus tear surgery and partial meniscectomies are common procedures used to correct full or partial meniscus tears. These arthroscopic knee surgeries often involve shaving or removing damaged portions of the knee cartilage.
During a partial meniscectomy, the surgeon will remove damaged portions of the meniscus and smooth over rough parts of the cartilage.
We also specialize in knee chondroplasty to repair knee cartilage damage. The patient can move one knee up toward their chest and back down, repeat the same process for ten times, and repeat the same process for other leg. When patients are sitting on bed or chair, the second recommended exercise is heel and toe raises. Patients can remain seated with both feet on the floor in front of them and raise both heels and keep it for 3 seconds. Repeat this process for 10 times then repeats the lifts by raising the toes of both feet.
The third recommended exercise is heel lifts. The patient can stand up to increase blood circulation around knee joints after sitting for a long time.
The instruction for heel lifts is to hold onto a chair to balance your body. Then raise your heels gradually so you can transfer your weight to tiptoes. Keep this posture for 5 seconds then repeat 10 times. Walking is also highly recommended for improving blood circulation around knee joints for torn meniscus recovery. During the early stage of recovery, you can start with a small amount of time to walk daily then increase your time and speed gradually to help muscles around knee joints recover.
Can you walk around with a torn meniscus? If you only have mild pain in your knees after torn meniscus surgery. Walking and other low impact exercises will help to speed up the recovery, doing exercise can lubricate the joints and mobilize joint fluid. During the recovery, you may feel painful, stiff and fatigue with your knees but it will improve over time by maintaining an active lifestyle.
If you still experience moderate to severe pain in your knees after torn meniscus surgery. If knee pain remains severe and prevents you from doing any short distance walk, you might consult your doctor for medical advice immediately. Knee brace is one of the helpful sports medicines that can contribute to torn meniscus recovery.
The main benefit of knee braces is helping patients stay active during the recovery process. It ensures less stress is applied to the joint and extra stability is vital for torn meniscus recovery. Wearing joint support knee braces can help patients recover from torn meniscus by providing extra stability and limit twisting motion to prevent future injury.
Joint support knee braces for a torn meniscus can also prevent hyperextension for patients. It can stop knees being extended beyond the safe range of motion because hyperextension at the knee is one of the most common reasons for a torn meniscus. Additionally, joint support knee braces are equipped with unique springs that can offer support to the knee as a shock absorber and help with weight-bearing of your body.
The extra support provided by the knee braces also helps with the up-and-down motion of squatting and provide extra support to the injured knee. Compression knee brace is a different type of knee brace which can add pressure to the affected area to encourage better circulation. Sufficient blood supply is crucial to speed recovery because it provides nutrition to the meniscus from the synovial fluid in your joint capsule.
Wearing a compression knee brace can help patients to reduce stiffness and soreness as well as speed up recovery due to the increase in blood circulation.
Like warming up your car in winter, the cylinders in the car engine should be lubricated by engine oil before you start driving your car to avoid shorter life on engine components. Same as your knee joints, start exercising without warm-up is dangerous for your knees because your joints may feel stiff or sore after sitting down for a long time.
You should always do warm-up exercise to get your joint fluid moving to avoid potential injuries. Choosing a soft walking surface is crucial because your knees will suffer more from the high impact from the hard surface.
Its recommended for patients to walk on soft surface e. Some patients may experience a lot of pain or stiffness in the evening and torn meniscus pain worse at night while others suffered pain at different times during the day. If you find the pain mostly occurs during a certain time then you should try to schedule your walks within those times. You are more likely to enjoy the walk during the time when you are facing less pain during the day and help you to maintain an active lifestyle and be consistent with your exercise pattern.
During the early stage after tearing your meniscus, you might experience swelling or inflammation around the knees. Yet, this type of meniscus tear often causes little or no symptoms. This is the area with the most blood supply. If the tear is here, it will likely heal on its own or with some conservative treatment.
It may need surgery, depending on the pattern of the tear. Tears in this zone are unlikely to generate a healing response. So, the orthopedic surgeon may recommend surgery to promote healing. The most common patterns of meniscal tears are 2 , 6 :.
These are usually a sign of degenerative problems. It may need surgery to remove the flap. These are very common with age and osteoarthritis. The treatment focuses on managing the symptoms — if any. Depending on the symptoms, it may need surgery to induce healing. This type of tear splits the meniscus into upper and lower parts.
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