This is the most common injury among those who play sports.

This injury can happen to anyone, but it is especially common among young people who play sports. It is a torn meniscus, a common injury in the sports world.

In adults, a meniscus tear is usually caused by repeated microtrauma, such as a forced push or a poorly executed turn.

Although these injuries can be painful and limiting, there are effective treatments, such as hyaluronic acid infiltrations, autologous conditioned serum, platelet-rich plasma, and a rehabilitation protocol. In most cases, these treatments are sufficient and no surgery is necessary.

It is a fibrocartilaginous structure located between the femur and the tibia, within the knee joint. Its semilunar shape allows to increase the depth of the relatively flat surface of the upper part of the tibia and to improve the congruence between the femur and the tibia.

However, the menisci are devoid of vessels and nerves, except in the peripheral area. This means that its healing capacity is limited to this area and injuries to the inner 2/3 do not hurt on their own, but rather because of the irritation they cause in the knee when broken, as the normal biomechanics of the joint do. altered.

Sports knee injuries are more common in contact sports. Among the most reported cases are people who play football, basketball or rugby. In football alone, these injuries account for about 8% of the total in a season.

Dr. Manuel Villanueva, medical director of Avanfi A Spanish center specializing in the treatment of trauma, podiatry and sports injuries, says that injuries caused by traumatic meniscus tears, which occur in younger patients (15 to 35 years old), are usually caused by accidents or intense sports trauma.

A meniscus tear can significantly limit a patient’s normal life or athletic activity and often requires arthroscopy to repair the joint and allow the patient to continue maintaining physical activity.

In contrast, injuries due to degenerative meniscus tears occur in older patients, between 45 and 65 years of age, and sometimes appear against a background of wear and tear or pre-arthrosis of the joint. In these cases, the meniscus has less elasticity and tears during normal life activities, and not due to sports trauma.

Most of these degenerative meniscus tears can be treated conservatively without surgery. However, in general, traumatic meniscus tears due to sports in young patients, when they cause symptoms or functional impotence, will require arthroscopic surgery and will usually have a very rapid recovery.

“When the meniscus is young, it is elastic and it is a structure that, when it breaks, causes symptoms such as pain, pinching, failure, locking or pseudo-locking of the knee, strokes, impotence (especially when playing sports) in younger patients (20-35 years). Recovery is somewhat slower in cases where it is necessary to suture or reinsert the meniscus and try to preserve it,” documents Álvaro Iborra, physiotherapist and co-director of Avanfi. In these cases, healing will be slower, but it will be worth it for the long-term benefit of preserving this joint and slowing the development of osteoarthritis in patients.

These are the ones that occur in middle-aged patients: from the age of 45. In these cases, the meniscus no longer has the same elasticity as at 20 or 30 years old.

“These injuries are caused by repeated microtraumas, by a forced support, by a badly executed turn, by an activity or support that is not associated with a strong shock or trauma. They appear because the meniscus has lost that elasticity that we had in the youngest years of our life,” explains Dr. Villanueva.

These injuries often cause a period of inflammation and acute pain that lasts for a few months and then tends to stabilize.

These injuries can be treated with hyaluronic acid infiltrations, platelet-rich plasma, conditioned autologous serum, a rehabilitation protocol and, in most cases, in a very high percentage, they will not require surgery. Often this is not indicated because, as the meniscus has lost its elasticity and is more fragile, more brittle, after a few months it will break again in another place.

“We must therefore be very selective in the degenerative meniscus tear and not always go straight to arthroscopy; but first try to offer our patients conservative treatment which, in most cases, will be successful,” concludes Dr. Villanueva.