What is the deal with meniscus tear? Novak recovered in weeks.

[dannyslicer]

Anyone have experience with this injury?
I thought meniscus tear is a huge deal.
Novak got surgery and was playing ATP level tennis a few weeks later?
Is this injury really that trivial?

What does average adult need to know about this sort of injury?
Get surgery ASAP like Novak? Not worth dealing with chronic mild daily discomfort?

What are PT exercises for meniscus tears?

 

[yossarian]

Depends entirely on the type and location of the tear

 

[Yiuh]

Pro athletes often miss 6-8 weeks with a meniscus tear depending on the sport but as the madman above me said it can vary greatly with severity and location.

I tore my meniscus at 30 and had to get surgery, then plenty of PT, and I wasn’t 100% for something like six months. I tried PT and rest before surgery but it didn’t do anything, and I ended up aggravating the injury several times before I went under the knife.

Eventually I was told that PT alone couldn’t actually heal it - the meniscus receives little or no blood flow so it basically doesn’t heal, they said. Surgeon said if I was an old person who was mostly done with physical activity and sports it might not be worth the surgery, but for any sort of athletic activity you basically have to get it.

Edit to add: you should really just consult with a doctor if you believe you have a torn meniscus and if you have access to one, don’t take a random stranger’s word for it.

 

[Pheasant]

There are far too many factors in a meniscus tear to know exactly how long the recovery takes without consulting a doctor first. In my case, the specialist said that I had a degenerative meniscus tear, meaning that my meniscus was not healthy before I tore it. In that case, it took me 12 months to get back onto the racquetball court. To be fair, racquetball is tougher on the knees than tennis is, due to all of the pivoting that you do on a sticky court. Yeah, you don't slide. You stick to the court.

That said, it sounds like Djoker had a very healthy meniscus that suffered a small tear. And I'd bet that he did the proper maintenance(chiro adjustments for proper alignment, balance exercises, exercises to strengthen all of the muscles around the knee joints, etc) so that his knee joint was always healthy. And I doubt that he had osteoarthritis like my sister does, which makes a full recovery even tougher.

 

[SteveI]

Anyone have experience with this injury?
I thought meniscus tear is a huge deal.
Novak got surgery and was playing ATP level tennis a few weeks later?
Is this injury really that trivial?

What does average adult need to know about this sort of injury?
Get surgery ASAP like Novak? Not worth dealing with chronic mild daily discomfort?

What are PT exercises for meniscus tears?

On the other hand these injuries ended Feds playing days. I suspect he had the best care in the world. I had two pretty successful outcomes. The question is also always for me... could have healed with PT and rest?

 

[Fintft]

There are far too many factors in a meniscus tear to know exactly how long the recovery takes without consulting a doctor first. In my case, the specialist said that I had a degenerative meniscus tear, meaning that my meniscus was not healthy before I tore it. In that case, it took me 12 months to get back onto the racquetball court. To be fair, racquetball is tougher on the knees than tennis is, due to all of the pivoting that you do on a sticky court. Yeah, you don't slide. You stick to the court.

That said, it sounds like Djoker had a very healthy meniscus that suffered a small tear. And I'd bet that he did the proper maintenance(chiro adjustments for proper alignment, balance exercises, exercises to strengthen all of the muscles around the knee joints, etc) so that his knee joint was always healthy. And I doubt that he had osteoarthritis like my sister does, which makes a full recovery even tougher.

Well, I had both, one that required surgery (also due to torn ligaments, but we waited 6 months before doing it) and at least a small tear more recently that healed on its own in weeks:

Anyone had meniscus repair surgery on knee?

I have a medial meniscus tear and am looking at surgery for repair. Tore a few months ago on the court. How is the rehab time, and how long can I expect to be out for?

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