The most important initial treatment, in my opinion, is rehabilitation. Many patients will recover completely with rehabilitation, and most patients will benefit from a course of supervised, formal rehabilitation to restore strength, range of motion and coordination. Anti-inflammatory medications may also be beneficial. Use of any medication, however, should be coordinated with your physician. Patients whose symptoms do not resolve with rest, anti-inflammatory agents and rehabilitation are candidates for arthroscopic surgery of the knee.
Arthroscopic surgery is a procedure done in an operating room to look inside the knee.
A fiberoptic device about the diameter of a pencil is used to look around the inside of the knee. Special instruments are also used to trim out the torn piece of cartilage or to remove a loose body. Patients usually go home the day of surgery, and recovery may be quite fast. Some patients have a large tear in their meniscus and require a repair of meniscus. Twenty to 30 years ago, large tears were frequently treated with removal of the meniscus.