The death of meniscal surgery?
/Here is a big one when it comes to gait and clients in our offices.
Here is a big one when it comes to gait and clients in our offices.
We tell our clients all the time that cartilage, at best, has a tenuous blood supply, and just in the peripheral red zone at that, and so true healing is not likely, at least not to any significant degree … . we tell them that their so called surgical “repair” is likely nothing more than debridement, a mere clean up most of the time. We tell our clients that meniscal tears are likely a dime a dozen after 40 years in most people. The cartilage loses some resilience and pliability with age and does not resist loading and shear as well as it used to making it more prone to loading damage.
“greater than 90% of the surgeries on the structure are not repairs, as most patients believe, but are instead excisions, or cutting out, of the torn part of the meniscus.”
“The most common orthopedic surgery in America had it’s final epitaph written this month with a level-1 study showing that surgery for meniscus locking is no better than placebo. ”
Mind you, some tears are massive and do create obstruction to joint function. Large tears like bucket handle tears and large free fragments often do need surgery because they are just too obtrusive to safe joint function. However, perhaps for the others one should consider the following:Stabilize the joint and return full symmetrical, balanced, coordinated function with endurance and strength. It may just be the best you can do…….and it seems it is often more than sufficient.
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