Had a knee arthroscopy yesterday and found to have a bucket handle tear of the lateral meniscus

fudgey

So, finally after 10 years or more of suffering with an excruciating knee locking issue i finally know whats wrong.
X-rays and 2 MRI's did not pick it up so yesterday had an arthroscopy and they guy found a rather nasty bucket handle tear of the lateral meniscus.

Unfortunately the surgeon dong the op was not the soft tissue expert and not trained or whatever to carry out a repair, so ill have to go back under the knife in due course.

Knee doesn't feel tooo bad today, so fingers crossed it wont be long till im up and about properly.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the op to repair the tear and what the recovery on that is?

Off to see another consultant about my hip on the 14th, so quite sure that will be more surgery too.

kingstonian

Fudgey wrote:

So, finally after 10 years or more of suffering with an excruciating knee locking issue i finally know whats wrong.
X-rays and 2 MRI's did not pick it up so yesterday had an arthroscopy and they guy found a rather nasty bucket handle tear of the lateral meniscus.

Unfortunately the surgeon dong the op was not the soft tissue expert and not trained or whatever to carry out a repair, so ill have to go back under the knife in due course.

Knee doesn't feel tooo bad today, so fingers crossed it wont be long till im up and about properly.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the op to repair the tear and what the recovery on that is?

Off to see another consultant about my hip on the 14th, so quite sure that will be more surgery too.

I had a repair to the miniscus just over 4 years ago. I say repair because it was sutured back in place, not removed.

I was told by both the surgeon and the physio that whilst a repair tends to have better long term prognosis, the recovery time immediately after the op is way longer. Due to the limited blood supply in the miniscus it takes ages for a repair to heal and I wasn't allowed to pivot on my knee for 8 months.

Post op I was extremely careful with the knee and followed every instruction I had from the physio - it paid dividends in the long run but was mind-numbingly boring when doing all the repetitive exercises.

fudgey

Thanks for the reply.
Yes the repair will be to stitch it back together, they used to just remove the loose part but found it caused more problems down the line, im 36 and they dont want to do that, and i dont want them to either.

I thought it would be slow going , but as you say i am sure it would be worth it in the longrun.

Thanks!

kiwimatt

I had an old fashioned removal of the loose part coming up 30 yrs ago - arthroscopy couldn't cope with the mess so the whole knee got opened up for some meniscus chopping What they are proposing for you sounds way better.

As a general rehab point the only long term solution for me has been to ensure really good quad strength and tone to try and keep the joint stable (any lapse on that regime starts to cause problems) and impact sport running etc of any kind is a compete no-no.

kingstonian

Yep, my surgeon persuaded me to stop running and playing football and take up cycling, which is what got me back on a bike.

fudgey

Ha luckily i have never been a runner. I also have a hip problem that will hopefully be on the way to getting sorted on the 14th, but even with that fixed i very much doubt ill take up running.

Cheers guys.

agentorange88

had a tear in mine in 2010,walked out the hospital same day as the op. week of rest, week of exercises and back at work after 2 weeks although took further 4 to get full strength and movement.

Ridden london to brighton on a mtb following year and several arduous treks with no problems. I just try to avoid twisting the knee so gave up playing tennis- the ultimate cause - although was unknowingly damaged already.