According to this study in the UK each year 150,000 knee operations are completed at a considerable expense to the NHS.
The Meniscus is a piece of cartilage in the knee that cushions and stabilizes the knee joint, protecting the joint from wear and tear. However all it takes is a good twist to cause an injury by tearing it. In some cases a piece of the broken cartilage can break loose and catches in the knee joint, causing it to lock up!
Meniscal tears are one of the most frequently occurring cartilage injuries of the knee. This type of injury is common in contact sports such as rugby as well as noncontact sports that involves jumping and changing direction quickly while running such as football.
Older athletes are at an increased risk of getting meniscal tears as the meniscus weakens with age. It is believed that more than 40% of people 65 years and over have them.
The trial involved 140 adults and half were assigned a supervised 12 week exercise programme comprising of 2-3 sessions per week and the other half were given key hole knee surgery followed by simple exercises to be performed at home daily. All patients were followed up on at 3 months and thigh muscle strength was assessed and self reported knee function was recorded after 2 years.
At the 3 month stage the exercise group showed an improved thigh strength over the key hole surgery group and at the 2 year stage there were no serious problems found such as deep vein thrombosis or infection in either group, meaning that both methods were equally safe among a population of this age.
The authors of this study concluded that, "Supervised exercise therapy showed positive effects over surgery in improving thigh muscle strength at least in the short term. Our results should encourage clinicians and middle-aged patients with degenerative meniscal tear and no radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis to consider supervised structured exercise therapy as a treatment option."
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