Pain After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Torn Meniscus – Causes, Treatment

Menisci are the two C shaped cartilage rings which serve the purpose of the hinge of the door between shinbone and thighbone. Just like a hinge, they keep the knee in its position and also act as a shock absorber for the bones.

Players in Contact sports like hockey, football are prone to the injury of these menisci due to overuse. But other people also get a tear in menisci in doing heavy workouts like squat, kneel of lifting heavy weight. The risk increases with the increasing age as our bones and tissue start getting weak as we become old. If one gets a tear in his meniscus he might feel stiffness, swelling, and pain in bending knee or he might not be able to fully straighten his leg.

Arthroscopic knee surgery is a useful surgical procedure and associated pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus is alleviated. Walking, after Arthroscopic knee surgery, becomes easy but sometimes the pain does not go with the surgery, in fact, severe knee pain after arthroscopy has also been seen in patients due to complications of the procedure. Some complications due to this surgery are given below.

Pain After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Torn Meniscus Causes

Arthroscopy allows people to come back to their daily life activities more quickly as compared to conventional knee surgery but sometimes pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus does rise due to many reasons and some of these reasons are:

Swelling

Pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus can also be due to the swelling. It is hard to treat as it can be due to many causes. Some people due to lingering inflammation resulting from surgical trauma has persistent swelling which causes pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus.

Infection

Pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus can also be due to infection. But it is not a common thing in knee arthroscopy and rarely happens in the patient. But when it occurred it restrict walking after arthroscopic knee surgery due to immense pain. Other symptoms include:

• Fevers, chills, or sweats
• Persistent swelling
• Redness around the incisions or draining fluid
• The warmth of the joint

Although the infection is rare it requires immediate treatment and cannot be neglected to have an early and safe recovery and if this infection is not treated it can cause severe problems. It can destroy the cartilage and becomes the cause of arthritis in the joint and as infection keeps in its place it becomes more difficult to cure arthritis with the infection.

The treatment for this pain and infection in the knee after arthroscopic surgery is the antibiotic medication which continues for a long time to eradicate the causative agent completely. Moreover, additional surgery can also be done to clean the joint.

Inadequate Rehabilitation

When someone has pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus he can develop poor knee joint mechanics. Because before surgery due to pain in the joint people try to put low-pressure often affected side and thus change their gait but when the problem is solved they still keep that abnormal gait which has become habitual.

And thus this abnormal gait can become the cause of severe knee pain after arthroscopy. Therefore after surgery, the doctor may advise the patient to go for rehabilitation center to check his normal gait. Sometime Inadequate Rehabilitation also becomes the cause of knee pain even 2 years after meniscus surgery.

Arthritis

The most common cause of pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus is arthritis. The cartilage of the knee joint becomes damage due to arthritis that simply cannot be repaired along with the torn meniscus. And thus pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus arise due to persistent arthritis. Sometimes pain does not arise suddenly but it comes gradually and we see patient complaining knee pain 2 years after meniscus surgery and they say that they have severe pain after arthroscopy which can be due to underlying arthritis which is not treated and giving rise to this pain. Although arthritis can also be treated with arthroscopy studies have shown that benefits are not as much in these patients.

Therefore, patients having torn meniscus with arthritis are advised to treat their arthritis with medication and take extra care in daily life activities.

Pain After Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Torn Meniscus Treatment

The treatment of pain after arthroscopic knee surgery torn meniscus is symptomatic. The main cause of this severe pain is ruled out and then that cause is treated which alleviated the pain. Even some problem can cause knee pain 2 years after meniscus surgery. So the cause is ruled out first.

In Case Of Swelling, Different Treatments Are Used Such As

• Physical therapy
• Ice application
• Compression wraps and braces
• Anti-inflammatory medications

Whereas infection is eradicated with the prolonged use of antibiotics and arthritis also need long-term medication which alleviates this pain.