Knee MRI Results Help

I recently got my MRI results and I wanted to see if anyone has a similar injury. That way I can see if anyone went for surgury or are just living with it and making good progress. The results of the MRI state…

  1. Tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus
  2. Tear of the body of the lateral meniscus
  3. Faintly demonstrated contusion at the anterior aspect of the lateral tibial plateau

Over time, I have learned my limits with this injury and are not able to do high impact task/sports, specficially anything with a large amount of running. This affects my cardio training. I have to get my act together and get a bike to supplement the cardio training. Any auggests to other low impact cardio would be appreciated.

-Machine

Machine,

I have worked with many athletes that have had similar injuries. The meniscus is the cartilage between the two long bones that make up the knee joint. It acts as a shock absorber. A meniscus tear will not heal by itself. The only thing that will “fix” it is surgery.

A surgery would consist of two options (decided upoon by an orthopedic surgeon usually during surgery) depending on how bad and where the tear in the meniscus is. These options would be

A) A menisectomy is a removal of the torn piece of meniscus. This is usually done through an athroscope (“scope”) and recovery is about 4-6 weeks depending on your current level of conditioning / strength.

B) A meniscus repair is when the surgeon will either sew the meiscus back together or use a tack to put it back together. This is also usually done through a scope but recovery time is usually longer because you would not be able to bear weight for about 4 weeks and you would then have to over come the resulting muscular atrophy.

Either way, after recovering from surgery you will be able to gradually resume your normal workout routine with minimal complications. So, I recommend you visit a trusted orthopedic surgeon (if you haven’t already) and discuss your options.

Hope this helps, good luck!