Meniscus, this "precious" little thing, what is the most scientific way to treat it?

First of all, where does the meniscus grow?

In layman's terms, the meniscus grows in the knee joint, located on the articular surface of the tibia. What? If you don't know where it is, then open it! The cartilage between the thigh and the calf is the meniscus. The meniscus is a half-moon-shaped, triangular-section fibrous cartilage embedded between the femoral condyle and the tibial plateau of the knee joint, similar to a gasket. It is born to match the irregular femoral condyle and tibial plateau, one on the inside and one on the outside.

Once you know its location, you will naturally know what the meniscus looks like!

Like most organs, the meniscus is not symmetrically shaped on the inside and outside. Instead, it is C-shaped on the inside and O-shaped on the outside. So now you know that the right side of the picture is the outside of the knee joint, and the left side is the inside! From the side, because the edge is high and the center is low, it is more like a wedge, firmly wedged around the knee joint.

How does the meniscus grow and what is its blood supply?

As an active and proud cartilage disc, it needs blood supply and nutrition just like other cartilages in the body! The edge of the meniscus is connected to the joint capsule, and there are some tiny capillaries supplying blood. Although there are, it is very limited, because this blood supply can only enter about 1/3 of the depth of the meniscus. The 2/3 near the center basically has no blood supply and can only be maintained by the energy in the synovial fluid.

If we are "serious", when the damage occurs in the outer 1/3 of the meniscus, because of the direct blood supply, the situation is not as optimistic as the inner 2/3 of the meniscus; once the damage occurs, the probability of self-repair is not high. But in general, the meniscus is still very "precious" among the organs in our body, because once it is damaged, it is difficult to heal! So we must protect our meniscus.

How important is this "precious" little thing, the meniscus, to our body?

First of all, it can buffer pressure and disperse stress. The meniscus was once considered an unnecessary structure, but in fact, the meniscus is an extremely important structure of the knee joint and has important functions.

If your knee joint does not have a meniscus, then your knee joint may directly grind against bone. A healthy meniscus has good compression and buffering properties, increases the effective contact area between the femur and tibia, and disperses the vertical pressure of most of our body horizontally, so that we can run and jump "unbridled"! Of course, once the meniscus is injured, the wear rate of your knee joint may increase exponentially!

Secondly, the meniscus can also lubricate the joints. The surface of the meniscus is a layer of synovial membrane, which can secrete liquid to moisturize the movement of the joints, just like lubricating oil, and this is also a nutritious liquid that can nourish the joint cartilage!

In addition, the meniscus can maintain the stability of the knee joint, limit excessive movement of the knee joint (hyperflexion, hyperextension), and prevent damage to the surrounding ligaments.

The fragile meniscus can easily be damaged when we perform improper exercises.

Although our meniscus has many benefits, it is inevitable to be injured. It is still quite fragile and easy to be injured... The most common factor is sports!

The human knee joint can move in two planes, flexion and extension, and rotation. A single movement is not so easy to injure our meniscus, but the compound movement (contradictory movement) of two planes can easily cause damage! Simply put, rotation occurs when the knee joint flexes and extends. In addition, long-term chronic strain and degenerative damage due to aging are also the main factors for its injury.

What should I do after a meniscus injury?

What are the symptoms after a meniscus injury? This is actually not easy to identify. Knee pain, swelling, sudden popping, and noose may all be manifestations of injury. However, if the above symptoms occur after exercise, you should pay attention and go to a regular hospital to see an orthopedic doctor for examination.

There are many types of meniscus injuries! The location, shape, length, and severity of the injury are different, so the treatment methods are of course different!

It has to be said that there are many ways to treat it now: conservative treatment, meniscus suture repair, partial meniscectomy, total meniscectomy, meniscus transplantation and the latest tissue engineering meniscus. Especially now that the arthroscopic technology is very mature, most operations can be completed with just a few small incisions!

However, Dr. Geng emphasizes here that when our meniscus injury is not accompanied by particularly serious symptoms and does not affect our lives, please choose surgical treatment with caution.

No matter what we do, the main principle is to preserve as much normal tissue and function of our body as possible!