Torn Meniscus info?

[Brian Link]

Must be Knee Day today. Take a Knee to Dinner!

Anyway.. Torn Meniscus. No not me, thank god.. my sister.
She's in her mid-50s and mostly sedentary. Doc says she's got
a tear, is recommending arthroscopic surgery to correct, and a
"scraping" of her knee, which I assume means the non-meniscus
cartilege involved in her arthritis. She also has "water on
the knee", whatever the heck that
is.

Correction of the meniscus in this case means cutting away the
tear, instead of suturing or screwing it.

My reading of the subject suggests that such "bonsai-trimming"
of damaged cartilege is a one-way street, requiring repetition
and ending after some years in no cartilege and whatever sort
of implants they install to replace it.

Is there anything that can be done to slow this process? Are
there situations where folks have refused ortho's scraping
suggestions? I'm a bit leery of ortho's surgery zeal because
of my son's back (which is doing remarkably well despite the
recommendation of total fusion last year), but there's no
circulation in that part of the knee and I can't think of any
way it could get healed without surgery.

Glucosamine, maybe? Though that seems to be more of a
preventative supplement..

Thanks for any insight.

Brian Link, Minnesota Countertenor
----------------------------------
"There are things that we know, and then there are known
unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know
that we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There
are things we do not know we don't know."
- U.S. War Secretary, 2003

[Ali-Reza A]

Brian Link <blink@visi.com> wrote:
> Anyway.. Torn Meniscus. No not me, thank god.. my sister.
> She's in her mid-50s and mostly sedentary. Doc says she's
> got a tear, is recommending arthroscopic surgery to correct,
> and a "scraping" of her knee, which I assume means the
> non-meniscus cartilege involved in her arthritis. She also
> has "water on the knee", whatever the heck that
> is.

In any case, get a second opinion. Depending on where the tear
is, and how much blood flow, some may recommend long-term
therapy and care and skip the surgery.

> My reading of the subject suggests that such
> "bonsai-trimming" of damaged cartilege is a one-way street,
> requiring repetition and ending after some years in no
> cartilege and whatever sort of implants they install to
> replace it.

I'm not sure that's the case. I had mine trimmed back some
years ago so it wouldn't get further unravelled. Sure you
could injure it again but I haven't felt like, or was never
told, that it'd just continue to deteriorate.

> Is there anything that can be done to slow this process? Are
> there situations where folks have refused ortho's scraping
> suggestions? I'm a bit leery of ortho's surgery zeal because
> of my son's back (which is doing remarkably well despite the
> recommendation of total fusion last year), but there's no
> circulation in that part of the knee and I can't think of
> any way it could get healed without surgery.

So you just covered the blood-flow issue.. I'd still get the
second opinion. 'The Knee Crisis Handbook' by Brian Halpern
might be a worth while flip-through.

I'm a fan of having glocosamine/chondroitin. I never found MSM
to provide any relief. Some have told me that having
Flax/Omega-3s also helps.

Those friends of mine who opted out of surgery at first
regretted it because they weren't feeling too much better
after 2/3 weeks. By weeks 6/7 they were feeling pretty good
and many months later no issues what-so-ever. And these aren't
sedatary people...

Good luck, Cheers, -Ali

--
OpenPGP Key: 030E44E6
--
Was I helpful?: http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=packetknife
--
In God we trust, all others we monitor. -- NSA, Intercept
Operators's motto, circa 1970

[Dufus McGo]

"Brian Link" <blink@visi.com> wrote in message
news:440r405dfv010dhvghpcnrcs74t5b6j5i0@4ax.com...
> Must be Knee Day today. Take a Knee to Dinner!
>
> Anyway.. Torn Meniscus. No not me, thank god.. my sister.
> She's in her mid-50s and mostly sedentary. Doc says she's
> got a tear, is recommending arthroscopic surgery to correct,
> and a "scraping" of her knee, which I assume means the
> non-meniscus cartilege involved in her arthritis. She also
> has "water on the knee", whatever the heck that
> is.

Bummer, water on the knee is a simple fluid build up an can
also contain blood.

> Correction of the meniscus in this case means cutting away
> the tear, instead of suturing or screwing it.
>
> My reading of the subject suggests that such
> "bonsai-trimming" of damaged cartilege is a one-way street,
> requiring repetition and ending after some years in no
> cartilege and whatever sort of implants they install to
> replace it.

Sometime, not always. The counter side is that depending on
the tear and where it is it can simply get worse. But in
either case a lot depends on the tear, the doc, the
individual.

> Is there anything that can be done to slow this process? Are
> there situations where folks have refused ortho's scraping
> suggestions? I'm a bit leery of ortho's surgery zeal because
> of my son's back (which is doing remarkably well despite the
> recommendation of total fusion last year), but there's no
> circulation in that part of the knee and I can't think of
> any way it could get healed without surgery.
>

Check Bob's Knee Billboad do seach it's on factotum something
or another and it used to be a pretty good resouce for people
going through similar experiences. If the tear is not
vascularized, no it wont heal and that's the bummer about
getting older the vascularized areas get smaller.

> Glucosamine, maybe? Though that seems to be more of a
> preventative supplement..
>
I take it and it might help, I seem to feel better with it,
but it might be placebo effect. Of course there is the
Glucosmine with SAMe, which is a mood elevator, so even if it
doesn't help you may not care as much.

From my own knee experiences the biggest factor is the OS and
their level of expertise. The sad fact that exists inside the
medical industry is that some docs that perform very poorly
are used by lawyers and this nasty sue for pain/continued pain
cycle starts. So if you go into an OS office and see a doc
that does everything from knees to backs to necks, keep moving
and fined the guy that does work for the local
pro/college/high school in that specific arena. Chances are
they will also do a lot of workmans comp but they specialize
and that's an important piece.

Most importantly, if she is not fully commited to rehabing
her leg, surgery should not be considered. "Rehab" can be
as little as a few weeks, but in reality takes a great
deal longer.

Dufus, - two time ACL replacement small meniscus trim, once
each leg, who is not happy with his squat weight or the size
of his legs.