Meniscus Tear Treatment
I have a meniscus tear! What do I do?
Firstly, don’t panic. The discovery of a meniscus tear doesn’t necessarily mean you need surgery. In fact most meniscus tear patients we see at Rock Therapy don’t eventually go down the surgical route. A scan is generally needed to 100% confirm the presence of tear, however it is not 100% necessary in all cases. A tear can often be diagnosed through functional testing done in-clinic, as well as getting an idea of how it happened in the first place.
Tennis, soccer, rock climbing, combat sports; these are all sports that encourage twisting motions at the knee. Twisting with pressure is the most common cause of a meniscus tear. These can also occur just in daily life! Slips and trips, falls, or spending lots of time in a bent knee position when gardening can create wear and tear on the meniscus.
Do I have to get surgery?
There are occasions where surgery is required for meniscus tears, however trialling rehab and conservative care is almost always step one. Surgeons will generally suggest rehab first to see if it improves on its own, or at least to improve strength before undergoing surgery. During conservative we look for a number of things to determine if surgery is needed.
- Pain and strength do not improve with exercise/treatment
- Feelings of instability linger well into treatment
- The desired sport to return to involves a lot of twisting, acceleration or contact
What does treatment involve?
Mensicus tears occur when the knee is forced to do something it’s not quite capable of doing. Coming to a sudden stop whilst playing tennis. Getting tackled whilst playing soccer. Slipping on a wet surface. This makes the knee absorb more force and if the muscles can’t tolerate it, the knee suffers. This is what we focus on with rehab and treatment. Firstly, hands on treatment including massage, chiropractic adjustments, shockwave and needling to reduce pain and improve range of motion.
Exercise will be a mainstay of these first appointments to help reduce fluid and improve range of motion recovery. Once pain has reduced then strengthening of the muscles around the knee and improvement of mobility will begin. This part of recovery will look really different for everybody. Normally there is some sort of weakness or mobility issue that led to the tear in the first place, so we focus on fixing this to make sure the injury doesn’t happen again.
Will I be able to play sport again?
In most cases yes. This of course depends on each individual person, but with appropriate care and enough rehab, we normally see patients return to similar levels of activity inside of 6 to 12 months. Keep in mind, there is continual improvement up to this point, so don’t look at 6 month recovery and think “I won’t be able to do anything for half a year”. Rehab is progressive. You will slowly but constantly be re-introducing things you enjoy doing as time goes by. The sport or action that caused the injury in the first place will be the last thing to re-introduce, but there’ll be plenty of fun things you can do along the way.
Meniscus Tear Rehab Brisbane
We are located just across the road from Suncorp Stadium! If you are experiencing anything like the symptoms above, be sure to book in with Matt our Myotherapist, Boden our Massage Therapist or Dr. Jack our Chiropractor. They can not only help with the injuries you have currently, but also guide you towards strengthening to make sure it doesn’t happen again! We see meniscus tears in clinic very regularly so you’ll be in good hands 🙂
So click here to make a booking today, our feel free to contact us by filling out the contact form below 🙂