You should soon start seeing improvement in your knee. You may be able to return to most of your regular activities within a few weeks. But it will be several months before you have complete use of your knee. It may take as long as 6 months before your knee is strong enough for hard physical work or certain sports.
Fully bend and straighten the knee without pain. Feel zero pain when walking, jogging, sprinting or jumping. Sense the injured knee feels the same as the uninjured knee.
Full recovery from meniscus surgery can take anywhere from six weeks to three months. Your care after surgery may involve: Crutches to take stress off the knee as it heals. Knee brace to stabilize the joint as you recover.
Rehabilitation time for a meniscus repair is about 3 to 6 months. A meniscectomy requires less time for healing — approximately 3 to 6 weeks.
An attempt should be made to preserve meniscal function by repairing tears, but even after arthroscopic confirmation of stable healing repaired menisci may tear again. The long-term rate of healing may not be as high as is currently reported.
Not necessarily. Left untreated, a meniscus tear can limit your daily life and ability to participate in exercise and sports. In serious cases, it can develop into long-term knee problems, like arthritis.
Following meniscus surgery, a person may develop new knee pain. This can occur for several reasons, including reinjury or problems with postsurgical rehabilitation. It may also develop due to postsurgical complications, such as arthritis.
Is Walking Good for a Torn Meniscus? Walking can be useful to improve your weight-bearing tolerance and loosen up the knee. Meniscus injuries are often worsened by pivoting or twisting or bending motions. Walking can help with meniscus tear rehab.
Physical therapy can help with strengthening your muscles and helping your tissue and cartilage to heal. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average recovery time for a torn meniscus is between 4 to 8 weeks.
Typically, mild meniscus tears heal within two to three weeks.
The goal is to not be overly active. If the knee is not tremendously painful, walking can occur without crutches; however, do not overdo it in the first two to three days after surgery since this could result in more swelling than is necessary.
Meniscus (cartilage) Repair patients cannot do twisting, pivoting, squatting, deep knee bends or impact activities for four months. It is vital that meniscus repair patients do not squat for at least four months after the repair.
An uncomplicated meniscectomy will resolve most of the pain fairly quickly, but swelling and stiffness take time to resolve. It may take 4-5 months for full healing. The patient should be able to bear weight on the knee while standing or walking, immediately after surgery.
You feel no pain in your knee when you walk, jog, sprint, or jump. Your knee is no longer swollen. Your injured knee is as strong as your uninjured knee.
“Most meniscus tears are not repairable because of the pattern of the tear. Only the outer third of the meniscus has a blood supply and will heal reliably,” said Joshua J. Christensen, M.D., orthopedic surgeon with Norton Orthopedic Institute.
Cycling can be a good cross-training option if you have a meniscus tear, but it won't suit everyone. If your knee feels uncomfortable, check whether it makes a difference if you adjust your saddle (higher is often better) or where you place your feet on the pedals.
Meniscal tears occur from trauma or degeneration or a combination of the two. Meniscal tears can produce knee pain, swelling, catching, and locking. Most meniscal tears do not heal because they are in an anatomic area that has no blood supply.
The fluid in your knee often remains there for at least 4-6 weeks after surgery until your body can reabsorb it. This fluid will make your knee feel tight or stiff, especially with deep knee bending or squatting.
You will feel tired for several days. Your knee will be swollen. And you may have numbness around the cuts the doctor made (incisions) on your knee. You can put ice on the knee to reduce swelling.
Avoid using stair-stepper machines, doing deep knee bends and squats. Avoid any exercise that causes crunching, clicking or pain at the kneecap.
Avoid positions and activities that place excessive pressure on knee until pain and swelling resolve. Problematic positions include squatting, pivoting, repetitive bending (eg, climbing stairs, rising from seated position, operating clutch and pedals), jogging, and swimming using the frog or whip kick.
Swelling is to be expected and in the majority of people this is not concerning and will settle with time. Swelling may increase over the first few days before starting to settle. It may take between a week and 12 weeks for this to reduce significantly.
There are several causes of post-operative knee pain. These include complications of the surgery, such as infection or spontaneous osteonecrosis of the knee. Others, like a slow recovery, may indicate other medical problems. Check with your doctor if your post-op knee pain doesn't improve.
The current study shows that meniscus repair frequently fails after the second postoperative year in overall 36%. Most studies defined failure as the need for repeat meniscus repair or subsequent partial meniscectomy without any stated cause of failure.