Do I Need Meniscus Surgery?



"Surgeons should strive not to operate in most cases, but to protect, repair or reconstruct, in order to prevent early development of osteoarthritis by restoring the native structure, function, and biomechanics of the meniscus."1

Surgery is a Last Resort

Not every meniscus injury requires surgery.

It's generally understood by doctors and surgeons that surgery will introduce more scar tissue into your joint. This added scar tissue will be problematic, requiring physical therapy and often significant treatment post-surgery. If not dealt with properly, you could end up in worse condition than before the surgery! This is why surgery is only performed as a last resort.


If You Haven't Done So Yet, Get a Proper Diagnosis

Some meniscus tears may be considered as Surgically Necessary (SN) and will require surgery. If you have an infection, which can be very serious, you will most likely require antibiotic medications as well as surgery. This is why it is important to get to a physician and find out what is really going on - this is known as getting a proper diagnosis. Getting a proper diagnosis would also determine if your pain or symptoms are a side effect from another condition or disease (ie. arthritis, lyme disease). This is less common but nonetheless, very serious. So yes, it is important to get a proper diagnosis.

Once your medical professional has diagnosed your tear, he/she will recommend the most effective treatment for your meniscus injury. The following will determine whether conservative or surgical treatment options are more appropriate:

  • Your activity level
  • Your age
  • The severity of your tear
  • The location of your tear
  • The type of tear
  • Your symptoms
  • Any other associated knee injuries

Do I need meniscus surgery?

Meniscal tears are graded on 3 levels; 1 being the least severe and 3 being the most. Grade 1 and 2 tears may not even be apparent during an arthroscopic exam and can usually be repaired without surgery. Grade 3 tears generally require surgery. Surgical options are used more often for larger, complex or displaced tears.

At one time, surgeons removed injured menisci - believing they served no purpose, however doctors now know the importance of the meniscus to the knee joint mechanics and function. Removing part of the meniscus should be avoided if possible, especially if it will weaken the surrounding tissue and reduce the load absorption of your weight. This will substantially increase the risk of further degeneration in the joint (ie. osteoarthritis).

If the meniscus is at risk of further damage or the knee cannot flex or extend properly, surgery many be required remove the flap; this helps prevent more tearing while restoring joint function. It is beneficial to try to heal a meniscus tear prior to surgery to avoid it if possible or to minimize the amount of meniscus that needs to be repaired or trimmed.

If an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury occurs when the medial meniscus is torn, surgery may be required to repair the ACL. Once again, the severity of the tear along with the patient's age and activity level are all factors considered when determining treatment. If conservative treatments are unable to treat your tear completely, your physician may recommend a surgical option. A comprehensive arthroscopic exam is usually performed prior to surgery to determine the location and nature of the tear and whether or not it can be repaired. You are generally a candidate for surgery if you have injured your meniscus and you:

  • Experience symptoms that interfere with your daily living after 2 - 3 months (knee catching or locking, very stiff and painful, major instability).
  • Have a larger, complex or displaced tear.
  • Have major instability in your knee (often due to a combined meniscus/ACL injury)
Do I need meniscus surgery?

The Good News

Most minor meniscus tears are not Surgically Necessary, and will heal on their own. This is why most doctors, physicians and orthopaedic specialists will recommend conservative therapy for non-SN injuries before considering surgery.

Some of the most effective conservative treatment methods to avoid surgery are:



What Happens When You Are Not Using Conservative Treatment Methods (as Outlined Above)

Meniscus tears are injuries that cannot really be ignored. If you choose to ignore the injury, then this means you will likely find that you will be losing range of motion and favoring your other knee (overcompensation). This means it will inevitably get worse.

Here is what to expect:

Trying to use your knee once it has not been used for a week or more can easily introduce more scar tissue, cause pain, freeze you up again and happen again and again... As you can see this is a cycle that just gets worse and worse, eventually becoming a chronic knee injury (long term). This is the cycle you need to stop or you will probably wind up having surgery once your injury becomes chronic. This is why you need to treat your injury with the TShellz Wrap® every single day, at least twice per day.


What Are the Two Biggest "Gotchas" When Treating Meniscus Tears Using
Conservative Treatment Methods?


The Absence of Pain Does Not Mean Your Injury is Gone

After most of our clients use a Cold Compress or Ice Pack for a couple days, pain will typically drop very significantly. This where most people wrongly associate the pain with the injury, whereas in truth, almost all of the pain really came from the inflammation and swelling. Once the inflammation is gone, do not assume you are fully healed.


Time Is Not Your Friend

So you have used a Cold Compress or Ice Pack on your knee and most of the pain is gone, but it's been a couple of months and the injury keeps flaring up. If this is you, then you probably know why this is happening now... the injury was never full healed. To really heal a meniscus injury, you need to get to a doctor. If the tear is small and in the vascular potion of the meniscus, conservative treatment methods might be all you need. If so, you really need to rest until it is healed, and you don't need me to tell you this is a pain in the butt! This is why the TShellz Wrap® is such an important tool, as it introduces the concept of heat. The body's response to this heat is to increase blood flow in the treatment area, kick starting an accelerated healing cycle. With accelerated healing, you can get back on your feet fast and avoid the re-injury cycle.

When the swelling has gone down and the pain has reduced, this is the perfect time to use the TShellz Wrap®. A treatment with a TShellz Wrap® will substantially increase blood-flow to the treatment area - it literally supercharges your body's rate of healing. We also highly recommend that our clients treat themselves with the Circulatory Boost wrap first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. This is important, as the heat from the treatment is proven to increase elasticity and flexibility in ligaments, muscles and tendons. Not only will this treatment combat atrophy, it will also decrease the chance of re-straining these ligaments, muscles and tendons at their most vulnerable time - after a long period of inactivity.


Why Your Knee Won't Heal

If our body is designed to heal our own injuries, why does it take so long to heal?

When we have an injured meniscus, ligament, muscle, tendon or bursa, this means the tissue is damaged. Your body responds to this damage with healing right away. During this healing process the injured tissue spasms. These spasms are contractions, and are meant to hold the tissue still to prevent any further injury.

However, there is a significant problem with swelling and inflammation with respect to healing rate. Once soft tissue is inflamed, blood-flow is restricted. The body heals itself by sending nutrients through the blood to the injured tissue, and if the injured tissue is swollen, the blood-flow is greatly decreased.

Decreased blood-flow to injured tissue, prevents the damaged tissue from healing as fast as it would if the area wasn't swollen.

The other issue is that swelling is also very painful. With many conditions, once you get rid of the inflammation, a lot of the pain will disappear as well.

Once the Pain is Gone, We Think Our Soft Tissue Injury is Healed.

So we start using it more and more for common tasks, and then "boom" we get a sharp pain and then it starts all over. When this happens, the injury was never fully healed - and now it is worse! More scar tissue grows in the new tissue micro-tears and well, lets talk about scar tissue.

Scar Tissue - We Need It For Kick-Starting Soft Tissue Repair
But After That It is Nasty Stuff

Cartilage, ligaments and other soft tissue are all meant to be durable and flexible, ready to work and move extreme forces in everyday activities. When I say extreme force, I mean try to imagine the amount of force that your meniscus handles, even when you are just walking, let alone running or jumping. It is no surprise that sometimes a meniscus will tear and from this point your knee movement might be significantly restricted and you may feel significant pain.

Scar tissue grows in damaged tissue when it tries to heal; little tiny band-aids that overlap each other to bind tiny tissue tears together. With this added scar tissue, muscles & tendons & ligaments become rigid, less flexible and unable to handle the forces that it once could. From this, there is added pressure on the tendons and muscles, which can easily become inflamed once there is other inflamed soft tissue in the vicinity. If you're suffering with scar tissue now you may feel the effects with stiffness, tightness, weakness and pain in your knee joint.

On-going issues with scar tissue can result in soft tissue tears and increase chances of strain to nearby tendons or ligaments (as they are now handling higher forces due to overcompensation).

Scar tissue is one of the MAIN reasons why a chronic injury has not healed and your Range of Motion (ROM) is reduced from what it once was.

Scar tissue will form fast to deal with a soft tissue injury, and this scar tissue will also attach to everything in the area, including the surrounding healthy tissue as well. This can result in a fusing together of soft tissue that shouldn't be fused together, causing extreme pain when you try to move your joint - it is literally ripping scar tissue. This is why physical therapy is often painful - the therapist stretches the joint, forcing the scar tissue bonds to break so you can regain your range of motion.

Scar tissue is a significant problem for tendon injury sufferers - causing your injury to become chronic, and taking months or even YEARS to completely heal!

You can help reduce the nasty effects of scar tissue and minimize further injury to your knee by adding heat to the area. Treating yourself with the TShellz Wrap® is the easiest and most effective way to accelerate your recovery at home and deal with stubborn scar tissue.

When applied before activity or work, the TShellz Wrap® will also relax and lengthen your soft tissue to help improve your range of motion and prevent atrophy (tissue wasting & shortening) of your injured joint.

Overall, continued treatment with a TShellz Wrap will maintain good health in your soft tissue and significantly reduce your risk of re-injury.

trigger points knee thigh


The TShellz Wrap® - a Home Treatment for Meniscal Damage

The best option we came across in our research to accomplish fast recovery of meniscus injuries is the TShellz Wrap®. This results in a dramatic increase in blood flow to the tissues located in and around the area of application - all in a non-invasive manner.

Have you seen what happens when you add water to a flower wilted from drought? In essence, a soft tissue injury is much like a "wilted" flower; your body wants to heal its injury, but needs lots of nutrients to do it. Blood brings new life to your tissue by delivering healing nutrients and oxygen that are vital for their growth and survival. In addition, the blood carries away toxins and waste - cleaning the area and healing it faster. Without a good supply of blood, your muscles and/or tendons simply won't heal properly.

Using a TShellz Wrap® will not expose you to the risk of causing further harm to soft tissue like you can when using rigorous exercise. The TShellz Wrap® accomplishes the goal of enhanced blood flow without the need for intensive exercise and as such reduces your risk of re-injury.

When to use a TShellz Wrap®:


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Minimize Your Chance of Surgery with these Effective Conservative Treatment Options

If your doctor thinks you might be able to avoid surgery by using conservative treatments, you can join our many customers who have had great success treating themselves with the powerful TShellz Wraps® that we offer through AidMyMeniscus.


Our online shop accepts Visa & Mastercard as well as a Paypal Payment option.
We also encourage your to Call Our Office at 1-866-237-9608 (toll free continental NA) where we can answer any questions you have and/or take your order via phone.

Soft Tissue Injuries are common and can happen to anyone. Right now there are thousands of doctors and physical therapists dealing with patients that require a solution to treat their injury fast and heal it (where possible). If you want to be pro-active about properly addressing your meniscal tear by using optimal home based conservative treatments, then you need to use AidMyMeniscus's system utilizing TShellz Wraps® and accessory products.



If Surgery is Required

Ok, well the good news is that our TShellz Wraps® are highly effective treatments for post-surgery recovery. To learn more about how to get started with recovery after surgery, click here.



The Next Step Is Up To You!

Living with pain is never easy as it affects your entire lifestyle. Living with pain during or after an intensive surgery and lengthy rehabilitation period can be even harder! What is more important than taking your best shot at trying to heal your knee before signing up for surgery?

Doctors and Surgeons are always improving the technologies used in surgery, and results from surgery now are much more positive than they were in the past. However, all surgeries introduce scar tissue, and recovery from some surgeries can be disappointing. If you do wind up getting surgery, know that rehabilitation at-home while attending regular physical therapy or doctor appointments is vital for your overall recovery. It is especially vital to critical joints that consistently handle extreme forces (body weight). Consistent exercise and conservative treatment on a daily basis during your rehabilitation while working with your doctor, surgeon or physical therapist is key - and this is why you should seriously talk with your PT about maximizing your recovery by using the TShellz Wrap® at home once you are approved for physical therapy.

AidMyMeniscus stands out in this regard as our goal is to help you keep your body healthy for the long-term in a cost effective manner. This might mean fixing tendonitis without needing surgery. If you couldn't avoid surgery, then our tools can also help you recover from surgery more quickly and completely..

We strongly believe that we can help you, and we have thousands of happy clients to back this claim. You are welcome to try our products for a 60 day period.. If you are committed to following the treatments outlined in the product instructions we are very confident that our TShellz Wraps will aid you immensely. If you do not receive the benefits that countless of our other customers have experienced after 6 weeks - call us. We will send you return instructions and provide you with a full product refund once receiving the product back.


Our online shop accepts Visa & Mastercard as well as a Paypal Payment option.
We also encourage your to Call Our Office at 1-866-237-9608 (toll free continental NA) where we can answer any questions you have and/or take your order via phone.

Product specialists are available 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday to Friday.

If any question or concern arises, call us or simply send us an email at any time (we check our emails constantly all throughout the day and night.. even on holidays!). We will respond as soon as possible.

North America Toll Free 1-866-237-9608
Outside North America +1-705-532-1671



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Living with pain is never easy and we encourage you to call us with any questions you have related to how our products can aid your meniscus tear, articular cartilage or damaged ligaments in the knee. We will do our best to help.

Available Monday to Friday

Product specialists are available 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday to Friday.

If any question or concern arises, call us or simply send us an email at any time (we check our emails constantly all throughout the day and night.. even on holidays!). We will respond as soon as possible.

North America Toll Free 1-866-237-9608
Outside North America +1-705-532-1671



Learn More About Meniscus Injuries & Treatments

I want to learn more about Post-Surgery Recovery

I want to learn all about Types, Patterns, Shapes & Severity of Meniscus Tears

I want to learn more about TShellz Wrap® Circulatory Boost

I want to learn more about Ice & Heat: Which Is Better For Treatment?

I want to learn more about Meniscus Treatments

I want to learn more about different types of Meniscus Surgery


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During your recovery, you will probably have to modify and/or eliminate any activities that cause pain or discomfort at the location of your soft tissue injury until the pain and inflammation settle. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!



References:

1."EFORT Open Reviews". 2019. EFORT Open Reviews.. website.


Learn More About Meniscus Injuries & Treatments

I want to learn more about Post-Surgery Recovery

I want to learn all about Types, Patterns, Shapes & Severity of Meniscus Tears

I want to learn more about TShellz Wrap® Circulatory Boost

I want to learn more about Ice & Heat: Which Is Better For Treatment?

I want to learn more about Meniscus Treatments

I want to learn more about different types of Meniscus Surgery


FREE SHIPPING ON ALL PRODUCTS CURRENTLY ENABLED


During your recovery, you will probably have to modify and/or eliminate any activities that cause pain or discomfort at the location of your soft tissue injury until the pain and inflammation settle. The more diligent you are with your treatment and rehabilitation, the faster you will see successful results!


Please be aware that this information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider before using any of our outstanding products to make sure they are right for you and your condition or if you have any questions regarding a medical condition. Always see your doctor for a proper diagnosis as there are often many injuries and conditions (some very serious) that could be the cause of your pain.

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