Pathology and Symptoms of Meniscus Tears - Term Paper Example

MENISCAL TEARS Name: Institution: Professor: Course: Date: Symptoms of Meniscus Tears There are several symptoms that accompany meniscus tears. The most common symptom of all is pain. The patient or victim of meniscus tear will experience pains of varied nature. This pain is dependent on the location of the meniscus tear on the knee of the patient. For some positions or location, the patient will experience minimal pain. These pains normally recur and persist depending on the patient. Research reveals that pain may recur in about 14 days to 21 days. The pain that the patient or person affected by meniscus tears will also depend upon the cause. Meniscus tears can be caused by sports such as athletics, football or even cricket. Pain therefore will vary due to the impact it has on the individual. Some patients can go through acute pains while others go through minimal pain (Laible, Stein and Kiridly, 2013 pp. 205). The second most notable symptom of meniscus tears is swelling at the knee. The patient will experience slight swelling on the knee. One can easily see the swelling on the knee. This is due to the effects that meniscus tear has on the lateral positions of the knee. The swelling can grow bigger and bigger if the patient doesn’t seek medical attention on time (Casscells, 1978 pp. 197). The third symptom of meniscus tears is stiffness. For example when an athlete is running and he or she experiences stiffness, he can run with the same speed. He or she will be forced by the knee to run slow and on some case even stop. The patient experiencing stiffness will not be able to move easily. He or she will be feeling a lot of discomfort while moving or walking. This is a symptom that is mainly experienced by the old people. The ligaments in the knee are worn out and therefore they cannot walk comfortably (Badlani, Borrero, Golla, Hanner and Irrgang, 2013). The fourth symptom that patients experience is catching and locking of the knee. The knee will be in a position in such a way that it is like locked. This is a big blow to the patient. For example in sports like football, when an individual has meniscus he will be experiencing locked knee. He will therefore be straining to run. Meniscus tears also are characterized by knee pops. The patient will be experiencing a strange pop sound. This occurs when the patient tries to move or after walking for some time. This knee pop will limit the patient from walking well (Badlani, Borrero, Golla, Hanner and Irrgang, 2013). The patient also will experience limited pending. He or she will not be in a position to bend at ease. The patient finds great difficulty when he or she tries to move or bend. This is a symptom that people who are aging mostly experience. The knee becomes unstable for them. The final symptom that is majorly experienced by patients is the feeling of knee giving away. This is a major symptom that is experienced in sports and even when lifting heavy weights. The individual affected feels a sensation of easily giving away. This can be so bad especially for people lifting heavy weights because one can easily lose control (Casscells, 1978 pp. 198). Pathology of Meniscus Tears A. Traumatic Meniscus Tears Research reveals that traumatic tears occur mainly on the young generation. These are people who are very active on daily duties and majorly sports. In this type of meniscus, tears normally occur due to traumatic injuries to the patient or individual affected (Fithian, Kelly and Mow, 1990 pp. 20). The knee ligaments get injured in the process leading to pain. There are also quite a number of types of traumatic meniscus tears and position which occur on the knee. The common ones include radial tears, vertical tears and also vertical tears. All these are positions in which the tear occurs on the knee (Laible, Stein and Kiridly, 2013 pp. 206). There are several factors that are associated with each tear type. Such factors include age, ACL injuries and symptomatic knee. Traumatic tear is associated mainly with the young people who are very active especially on sports. Traumatic tears can lead to the dislocation which will definitely lead to locking of the knee in the affected patient. Traumatic tear is associated strongly with ACL injuries. In this case when ACL gets torn it leads to traumatic tear. This therefore will lead to experiences of pain by the patient. Since traumatic tear is associated with the young, it is normally found on the symptomatic knee. The young people are very active and therefore in the process they fall victims of this meniscus type. Traumatic tear is common in the young people since they engage in activities which require a lot of energy. B. Degenerative Meniscus Tears Degenerative meniscus tear is also known as acute tear. This type of meniscal tear is majorly experienced by the old generation. These are people who are aging. Their knee ligaments are getting worn out due to age. They therefore develop degenerative tears.Degenerative tears occur due to the degenerative processes that take place in the knee of the old person or patient. It can be categorized according to the position and location it occurs on the knee of the patient. The first category is the complex tears. This occurs in the complex ligaments and leads to several complications to the patient. The second is horizontal flap and finally the degenerative and destructive meniscal tears (Hawker, Guan, Judge and Dieppe 2008). Degenerative tears are caused by the process of exerting excess force on the knee and the meniscus. When the knee experiences excessive forces it will generate to acute. This will led to acute pain to the patient and on sever cases may lead to complications.Research reveal that degenerative tear occur mainly on the symptomatic and asymptomatic knee of the same patient or individual (Hawker, Guan, Judge and Dieppe 2008). There are several factors associated as the causes of degenerative tears. Some of the factors include body mass, occupations, osteoarthritis and meniscectomy. On body mass research reveals that obesity is strongly associated with degenerative tears. Osteoarthritis OA is also associated on high occasions with degenerative tears (Nelson and LaPrade, 2000 pp. 75). On meniscectomy, there is also great evidence of relationship with acute tears. The outcomes of meniscectomy are worse in degenerative tears. This will lead to acute pains and complications to the patient. Acute tear is also strongly associated with some occupations (Arnoczky and Warren, 1982 pp. 92). Mechanism of meniscal tears There are several mechanisms that assist in dealing with the issue of meniscal tears. The first most common mechanism is twisting. Twisting is a very common mechanism that its usefulness has been proved time and time again. The knee joint of the patient is twisted for a period of time. The knee that is twisted is normally bent. The patient therefore has to stand and support himself or herself on the ground. This mechanism is mainly common or applied on playing grounds. It is common to players of different games especially football, netball and even volleyball. During twisting, the affected individual experiences varied level of pain. This will be dependent on the nature of the tear and the location affected on the knee. Twisting of the knee therefore has been accepted as a useful aid in addressing meniscal tears. It is so useful especially to players who fall mainly victims of injury (Nelson and LaPrade, 2000 pp. 75). The second most common mechanism is flexing movement of the knee. This is also a very useful and significant mechanism that is applied. The knee joint is flexed in motion for a period of time. This flexing motion will aid in straitening the ligaments and flexing the knee joint. The flexing motion therefore is a very handy mechanism used to safe the situation during a meniscal tear attack. This method also is commonly usedin sports such as football and netball. Players do fall victims of meniscal tears on high chances (Fithian, Kelly and Mow, 1990 pp. 20). Treatment of Meniscal tears There are various ways of treating Meniscal tears. The way it is treated is dependent upon the location of the tear, the size of the tear and the type of the meniscal tears.On most cases the Meniscal tears which are small and available at the outer part of the knee requires non-surgical treatments. The RICE is a procedure for treating meniscal tears. It is mostly applicable for injuries associated with sports such as football. RICE is an abbreviation for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. Rest is whereby the patient or the individual affected stops what he or she was doing. On high case the use of crutches to assist in walking is advisable here.Ice involves the use of cold ice for about half an hour at a time on daily basis. Compression is a way of avoiding more welling on the knee. The patient is required to be bandaged. This will also avoid loosing of blood.Elevation is mainly applied to reduce swelling. The patient is supposed to place his or her leg upwards (Durand, Richards, Malouin and Bravo, 1993). Physiotherapyis used as a treatment of meniscal tears where surgical intervention is unnecessary. A small and stable tear which has limited effects to the patient is treated this way. Surgery is done when non-surgical cannot heal meniscus tears. The most common type of surgery done here is known as knee arthroscopy. A small camera is inserted into the knee then the surgeon performs the surgery process to trim or repair the affected parts.Meniscal Repair involves stitching of the torn ligaments into the same position. This kind of treatment normally takes long for the patient to recover (Durand, Richards, Malouin and Bravo, 1993). Partial meniscectomy is a way of treatment whereby the affected tissues are trimmed away. It is done when the tear is involving high percentage interior.Total meniscectomy is a treatment approach that was common long ago. The whole affected part was removed leading to deterioration of cartilage on the affected knee (Arnoczky and Warren, 1982 pp. 92). References Nelson EW, LaPrade RF. The anterior intermeniscal ligament of the knee. An anatomic study. Am J Sports Med 2000; 28: 74-76. Hawker G, Guan J, Judge A, Dieppe P. Knee arthroscopy in England and Ontario: Patterns of use, changes over time, and relationship to total knee replacement. 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