Symptoms of a meniscus injured in a fall

Damage to the knee joints, in particular the meniscus, is the most common injury, because it is this joint that undergoes enormous daily burdens in everyday life. But especially often injuries are found in athletes and people engaged in dancing.

In a healthy knee, the movement of the joint should not be accompanied by any sounds and painful sensations. It is these signs that appear when there is a meniscus injury.

Symptoms immediately after knee injury have a pronounced character. It's a crunch and a sharp piercing pain that gradually wanes and almost goes to "no." How can this be dangerous and what is the role of the meniscus?

Signs of trauma

Why is there no friction in the joint when flexing and flexing the knee and how is its stability ensured? It is the meniscus in this case is a special gasket, which, in fact, is a shock absorber, stabilizing the work of this joint. Symptoms of a meniscus that is damaged when it falls on the knee or when it is sharply extended, with a simultaneous rotation, is a strange sound in the joint and sharp painful sensations, along with which the puffiness may appear after a while. Here are a few basic signs of the injuries associated with this important part of the joint:

1. Sudden severe pain, which eventually stops at one specific place. Symptoms of a meniscus damaged by an external rupture are unpleasant sensations almost on the surface of the knee. If the pain is somewhere inside, then, most likely, there was a rupture of the inner part. In most cases, it is the external one that suffers.
2. The knee is in a more or less normal state only when it is bent.
3. Later symptoms of the meniscus, which occur after 2-3 weeks, are a feeling of rolling the joint part when flexing and a clear click.

4. Sometimes there is a sense of the presence of a foreign body inside the knee.

Diagnostics

There are several options for examining the knee joint for damage. This is X-ray, MRI and arthroscopy. Due to the fact that the meniscus is a cartilaginous formation, it does not appear clearly enough in the picture, which limits the possibility of correct diagnosis. As for arthroscopy, this is a rather unpleasant procedure, since a special tube of the device is inserted into the knee through which the physician sees the entire organ from the inside, but it allows you to establish an accurate diagnosis.

Treatment

Symptoms of a meniscus damaged by a fall or due to incorrect knee rotation, confirmed by a diagnosis, allow the doctor to determine the extent of the injury and prescribe appropriate treatment, which can be conservative and operative. The surgical method is used for internal rupture and accompanying ligament injuries. If the lesions are insignificant, then the treatment is performed on an outpatient basis.

In conclusion, it should be noted that you should not let the trauma on its own, because this can lead to a complete deformation of the joint, in which the meniscus is completely lost. Symptoms, treatment of such consequences as they look and how everything happens? When the cartilage moves, it begins to shift and is gradually erased, and without such a padding, the joint begins to deform, and then there may be arthrosis or, worse, a complete blockage of the knee. And, to my great regret, this situation can not be corrected.