Could you avoid surgery with these new knee meniscus top tips?

As things have opened up during lockdown, people have been able to go out and play a lot more sports such as tennis, football, rugby, running, whatever it is, but we’ve been seeing a lot more people come into the clinic with meniscal damage and a lot of them are experiencing pain in the front of their knee or swelling or locking up at the knee. Watch more in this video to find out how I help in clinic people with meniscal damage.

Since the first lockdown, we’ve been seeing a whole load of people come in with meniscal damage. This may be due to improper gait or running or accidents in play but a lot of people are coming in with this and my job as a sports therapist is to help people to improve their mobility as well as strengthen weak areas, help people get back to their full potential.

What is a meniscal tear?

The meniscus is a C-shaped cartilage that’s in your knee joint and it’s used for shock absorption and there are two types of meniscal tears. The first is a traumatic injury and the second degenerative tear. So there are three main traumatic meniscus tears that we find. The first is longitudinal, second is horizontal and the third is radial and these are commonly caused by excessive twisting motions. Sometimes we see this in tennis or football and we also see this when there’s a sudden stop in movement as well.

Degenerative tears are ones that come with age and as the meniscus weakens it’s prone to micro traumas. So simple movements such as squats cause this kind of tear. What we can do to help this injury is build a proper rehab plan to help strengthen the muscles that are around the knee joint. This will help stabilise and support the knee joint so that you’re better off when you’re playing sports and walking around.