Meniscal Injuries

A meniscal injury usually occurs when the knee is twisted or over-flexed, or when it suffers a relatively strong direct impact. Another possible cause for a knee injury is degenerative arthritis (Osteoarthritis).

The diagnosis is made through clinical examination and an MRI scan, which allows the identification of the specific type of lesion.

The most common form of treatment is arthroscopy surgery with the segmental resection of the injured part of the meniscus (partial meniscectomy) or, whenever possible, with a suture repair of the tear.

Arthroscopic meniscectomy

Unlike open surgery, where usually most of the meniscus is removed, this minimally invasive procedure allows the removal of only the torn meniscus cartilage, requiring only 2 small incisions of 5 mm each.

With this procedure patients have less postoperative pain and a more rapid recovery.

Arthroscopic Meniscal Repair

Meniscal repair is a technique that preserves the meniscus, which has long term benefits since it prevents possible degenerative changes of the knee.

This procedure is limited to tears that occur in the outer vascular region of the meniscus (red zone), since this is the only region with healing potential.

Nonetheless, a meniscal repair will require a longer recovery period that a meniscectomy.

This used to be a complicated technique; however it recently became simpler with the appearance of several new meniscal suture devices. The videos bellow show examples of some of these techniques.