Caring for a Meniscus Injury with Physical Therapy
A meniscus injury can throw off your entire routine, whether you’re an athlete sidelined by a sudden twist or someone dealing with the wear and tear of daily life. But what exactly is the meniscus, and how can physical therapy help you bounce back?
I am Lauren Masi, a physical therapist and Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I’m also the owner and Clinical Services Director of Bay Area Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy. Today, we’re going to talk about caring for a meniscus injury with physical therapy.
What Is a Meniscus?
The meniscus is a type of cartilage that we have in our knee. Behind your kneecap, there are two round bits of cartilage that act as spacers for your knee joint. This helps provide stability while you’re walking or running, and it acts as a shock absorber between your shin bone and thigh bone.
What Can Cause a Meniscus Injury or Tear?
Well, menisci (the plural of meniscus) can be injured through twisting and pivoting motions, which can cause little tears in the cartilage. Injuries can also happen due to overuse, or wear and tear, where the cartilage becomes more frayed over time.
How well a meniscus injury heals will depend on where it is located, how much blood flow that area gets, and the type of injury or tear you have.
How Physical Therapists Can Diagnose a Meniscus Injury
One of the things that we’re lucky enough to have here is musculoskeletal ultrasound. With this tool, I can see the outer edges of the meniscus, and I can assess whether I’m seeing swelling coming out from deeper within the socket.
If I am suspecting a deeper meniscal injury, I might refer you back to your doctor for an MRI so that they can look more deeply at the center part of the joint and the type of tear there.
Do You Need Surgery to Repair a Meniscus Injury or Tear?
Sometimes, you may need surgery to repair a meniscus injury, but it depends on the type of injury you have. For example, a flap tear can cause the meniscus to literally flap back and forth. This can lead to your knee feeling like it’s catching or locking up. With that type of injury, you may need surgery to repair it.
We often don’t rush people into surgery. We want to start with conservative care first. Some of the research out there shows that certain types of meniscus surgeries are not much better at about a year out than conservative care. So if you’re considering surgery, that’s definitely a conversation to have with your physical therapist and eventually your doctor if needed.
How Physical Therapy Can Help You Recover from a Meniscus Injury or Tear
When you come to physical therapy on evaluation day, we’re going to determine the extent of your meniscus injury through poking, prodding, testing, watching how you move, and so on. Our goal is to see where your biomechanics might be off which could have contributed to your particular injury.
And we’re going to talk to you to find out how the injury happened. If it was a traumatic injury in a sport, for example, which way did you get hit? This will help us determine where we think this internal injury might be, and we’ll use all of this information to develop your treatment program. We’ll look at what caused the injury to determine if we need to work on:
- Retraining biomechanics
- Strengthening the hips
- Changing the footwear you use
Schedule a Consultation at Bay Area PT
Physical therapy is going to look above and below, not just at the knee, to try to make sure we get you back to full function as quickly as possible. We do this by strengthening the areas around the knee and decreasing stress on those healing tissues.
We also have a Class IV laser that can help stimulate tissue healing, decrease inflammation, and decrease pain. If you would like more information on our Class IV laser, please see our vlog titled, “How a Warm Healing Laser Can Improve Physical Therapy Results.”
If you have a meniscus injury, we hope to help you on your journey to heal it. If you have any questions, please reach out to our physical therapists today at (925) 284-3840.