A meniscal tear might cause local pain. (This is likely emanating from the joint capsule, as the meniscus has no pain-sensing nerves.) A meniscal tear might provoke swelling in the knee (effusions). A meniscal tear might also cause mechanical symptoms, such as catching or locking.

A torn meniscus will also fail to provide the shock-absorbing, load-distributing and stabilizing tasks that a normal meniscus would.

Then again, some meniscal tears cause no symptoms, and those that are symptomatic might quiet down on their own.

In a young person without arthritis, the goal of treatment for meniscus tears is, foremost, to restore normal meniscal function: namely, absorbing shock and distributing the load of the femoral condyle across a broader surface area on the tibia.

Because the loss of those functions leads to knee arthritis, any meniscal tear in a young patient that is amenable to meniscal repair should be repaired.

The location of a meniscus tear is the major factor to determine if a tear is repairable. Peripheral (so called “red zone”) tears are most likely to heal; central (“white zone”) tears (usually) do not (Figure 1). That is because the blood supply to the meniscus enters it from the capsule at the periphery. That is, the peripherally-located red zone is the most perfused and the centrally-located white zone is the least perfused. The closer the tear is to the capsule, the more suited the tear is for attempted repair.

Another consideration is the configuration of the tear (Figure 2). Meniscal tears are described as radialtears (those that start on the central margin of the meniscus and propagateperipherally), horizontal cleavage tears (those that lie within the meniscal tissue, parallel to the tibial plateau), and longitudinal tears (atop-to-bottom tear in the meniscus, the courses parallel to the capsule, perpendicular to the plateau).

A bucket handle tear (Figure 3) is a specific form of a large longitudinal tear in which a large fragment is still tethered anteriorly and posteriorly, with the central piece flipped (like a bucket handle) into the intercondylar notch.

Bucket handle tears are notorious for blocking motion and thus are more likely to need surgery. Because excision of a bucket handle tear will inevitably lead to a loss of a large amount of tissue, a repair is usually attempted even if the edges of the tear are within the white zone.

The size of a meniscus tear is another factor determining whether a repair is attempted. The larger the meniscus tear, the more motivated we’d be to try to save it, as more meniscus will be lost if it fails to heal. Also, very small peripheral tears are apt to heal on their own.

If a radial tear is to be treated, (Figure 4) it almost always must be excised (and not repaired) as these tears, by definition, involve the most central aspect of the white zone. (It is not possible to be further from the capsule!)

Another final consideration is the “quality” of the tissue. If the torn piece of meniscus is badly damaged or macerated, excision is chosen, as the tissue is not likely to function even if the suture line were to heal.

If the patient is older, and presumed to have at least some arthritis, treatment is dictated by the presence and severity of symptoms. Most surgeons would offer surgery sooner if there are so-called mechanical symptoms, such as catching, locking or blocked motion. In that case, partial meniscectomy is performed.

Another reason surgery may be chosen is the presence of recurrent effusions. Typically, surgery is selected if the patient remains in too much pain despite a course of non-operative treatment.

Note that if the joint is presumably not pristine and if there are no mechanical symptoms, it is certainly reasonable to defer operative treatment, as symptoms very well may resolve.

Patients not given operative treatment are usually offered some combination of physical therapy, pharmacologic therapy (e.g. NSAIDs). Physical therapy is thought to be helpful to prevent stiffness and atrophy. It is also reasonable to select a course of doing nothing: benign neglect. Because some patients might have a bias against “doing nothing”, an invitation to participate in therapy help such a patient more willingly accept a non-operative approach.

Additional Points to Consider

For many years, the menisci were thought to be vestigial, serving no specific function; thus, surgeons routinely removed them. In 1948, Thomas John Fairbank published a paper, "Knee Joint Changes After Meniscectomy" in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery reporting that total meniscectomy produced squaring of the femoral condyles, peaking of the tibial spines ridging, and joint space narrowing. This form of arthritis is now known as “Fairbank’s changes.”

Because a meniscal tear can cause arthritis, it’s common to see a patient present with both arthritis and meniscal tear. In those cases, it can difficult to determine if the pain associated with a meniscus tear is from the tear itself, is part of an overall arthritic process, or is an incidental finding.