Knutson, Jr. Meniscal injuries are common in all age groups. You have a meniscus on the inside of your knee, or the medial side, and one on the outside of your knee, the lateral side. The meniscus is a protector for the knee joint and takes a lot of the stress off the knee joint. The meniscus has a red zone and a white zone. The white zone has almost no blood supply and gets much of its nutrition from the joint fluid itself.
The red zone has a good blood supply and gets blood flow from the vessels around the knee. There are different types of meniscal tears, including horizontal and vertical tears. The tears may be in the red zone, the white zone, or both. As a clinician, the first thing we discuss with a patient is their history. How long has the pain been occurring? What kind of symptoms do you have? Is your knee locking or catching? Do you have pain going up and down stairs?
Do you have swelling? As a rule, the pain comes and goes with a meniscal tear. This type of pain is distinct from arthritic pain, which is usually more consistent.
Your overall health history is also important. If you have an issue that may need surgery down the road, are you healthy enough to go through surgery? Are you on blood thinners? Have you had other things like pacemakers or spinal cord stimulators put in? Where is most of your pain: on the inside of your knee? The outside of your knee? Front of your knee? There are multiple ligaments and tendons around your knee, so where the pain is determines which ones may be affected.
During the exam, we are touching your knee and moving it to see if we can stimulate what causes your pain and to examine the motion. Swelling in the knee is typically a response to something going on inside the knee, such as arthritis, a meniscus tear or an injury to the ligament. We prefer to have the x-rays done weight bearing if you can, because that will give a better idea of what your knee joint looks like with the stress of carrying your body weight.
