Meniscus surgery

Meniscus Surgery Arthritis: Removing a Small Amount of Meniscus Causes Problems

Is there such a thing as meniscus surgery arthritis? We’ve known since the 1940s that removing the knee meniscus when it was torn was a dumb idea. Since then many studies have shown that patents who get knee meniscus surgery are more likely to get knee arthritis. The knee arthroscopy community has generally responded that…read more

Avoid Meniscus Surgery: An Elite High School Athlete Uses Injections Instead

Why would you want to avoid meniscus surgery? After all it seems like every athlete at some point or another in his or her career gets a knee surgery, isn’t it a rite of passage? Well there are issues that the recent research has revealed with this approach. First, meniscus surgery seems to work no…read more

Does Meniscus Surgery Help? Taking Out a Torn Meniscus Makes the Knee Joint Unstable

Does meniscus surgery help? I see patients everyday who have had their knee “fixed” via arthroscopic “repair” of a torn meniscus. The pain goes away for awhile, but then returns with a vengeance. Almost 100% were unaware when they had the knee surgery that it’s been shown to be no better than physical therapy or…read more

Meniscus Tear Surgery or Not? Meniscus Tears are Like Wrinkles…

Meniscus tear surgery or not?  That is the question of the 21st century. You might be surprised to hear that in the vast majority of instances, the research clearly says “not”. The meniscus is a shock absorber in the knee. It acts as a spacer between the cartilage surfaces and it also helps to guide motion.…read more

Does Meniscus Surgery Work? A Quartet of Studies Says It’s No Better than Fake Surgery or PT

Few patients ask the obvious question about knee meniscus surgery: Does meniscus surgery work? The answer, after many different high quality studies is that it definitely doesn’t work. Let me explain. The first major paper on the efficacy of arthroscopic knee surgery was published more than a decade ago in 2002. It compared “arthroscopic debridement”…read more

Should Your Lateral Meniscus Tear Recovery Include Surgery? Lateral Meniscus Tears don’t Cause Arthritis, but Surgery Might

When patients get a knee MRI and see they have a lateral meniscus tear, it rocks their world. Rather than a lateral meniscus tear surgery alternative, often the first thing they think of is surgery. After all, doesn’t surgery fix the tear? So why wouldn’t your lateral meniscus tear recovery plans include surgery? Because the…read more

Meniscus Surgery Side Effects: How Long Have We Known that Removing the Knee Meniscus was a Dumb Idea?

How long have we known about meniscus surgery side effects? The year was 1948. Truman was the new president and the cold war was just beginning. The post WWII building and baby boom was just starting and a physician in the U.K. wrote a paper about his experience with removing the knee meniscus, which wasn’t…read more

Avoid Knee Meniscus Surgery: Another Study Shows More Cartilage Loss in Patients who Undergo Meniscus Surgery

We often tell patients to avoid knee meniscus surgery. Why? The meniscus is a key spacer and the rationale for surgery gets weaker by the year. For example, a recent study showed that physical therapy was as good as surgery for a knee meniscus tear. Not only have these surgeries been shown to be ineffective,…read more