Knee surgery - how has it affected you long term?

Just had half a medial meniscus removed - the tear was not repairable. I go in to the doc in a few days to get stitches out and get a PT plan, but I want to know - months or years on, how is your knee doing, and what did you have done? Do certain moves like high steps, knee jams, knee bars, heel hooks, or drop-knees bother you? Do you find climbing to be the thing that strains you the most, or are you more concerned with other sports/activities? Have you had success with long term strengthening exercise? There are other threads about knee/meniscus surgery, but typically focusing on short term "when can I get back at it" and not on the long-term forecast.

I had my meniscus repaired back in 1998. Had the first surgery and 6 months later I was in for a second one as they had to clean it up and take out the "arrows?" that didn't completely dissolve and were causing me pain.

That being said my strength returned but I have pain in the knee all the time. I was not a good patient. It was very hard for me to sit still and I'm sure I did a lot more than I should have. I had to keep my leg immobilized for a solid 3 months. If they are removing I'm guessing your rehab will be faster. I think the only thing with removal of the cartilage is the potential for arthritis.

I still trail run, climb, hike etc. regardless. If it gets really bad I pop some ibuprofen. As far as moves go. High steps & the occasional awkward drop knee seem to be a minor problem.

I tore MCL and Meniscus in the same knee while playing rugby in fall 2011. Doctor prescribed no surgery, just one month of immobilization (rigid leg splint), followed by thee months of breaking down the scar tissue to regain full range of motion. I was running in 6 months, playing rugby and climbing in a year. Now, 2 years later, I never notice the knee while climbing.

Hope you heal up well and quickly.

I had ACL reconstruction in 1992 when I was 29 years old. Surgeon also repaired some meniscus. No long-term issues and no pain yet (at age 51). The reconstructed knee has slightly less range of motion, which makes high steps a little harder on that side. My natural knee is hyper-flexible, though, which makes my reconstructed knee more stable. I actually trust it more than the other when hiking.

Think long term and don't rush back to full activity while things are healing up. The strength will return with the PT. My leg looked like a tooth-pick! Came right back and was actually stronger than the other one at the end of the PT process.

Much more difficult for me was the range of motion. My extension was fine because my PT told me quite early on: "The position of comfort is the position of deformity." In other words, he advised me to comply with the brace -- not to take it off and relax my leg in a partially bent position. When PT got going for real, I achieved full extension quickly and painlessly.

Flexion was another matter altogether because I was not so diligent with the home range of motion exercises, which are painful. I soon discovered that it was even more painful for the PT to strap me down and flex my knee through the scar tissue by hand. This was excruciating, but also very motivating. He only had to do it once and I was back on the flexion band-wagon.

Good luck.

I've personally had good luck by focusing on posterior chain strengthening (gluts and hams) to protect my torn meniscus. If I do any type of quad strengthening in which my tibia isn't vertical then I get flared-up. I got the idea from a couple of older climbers I know who have bone on bone knee OA but no pain as long as they do their morning squats. I do dead lifts instead of squats to comply with the vertical tibia component but powerlifting style squats would work too. Technique is key and it would be easy to make yourself worse. Here's a good video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cwGRCnmgag

Of course follow the PT protocol you are given first and run all this by your PT. I, for one didn't benefit from the traditional PT quad strengthening protocol and the traditional PT glut exercises like bridges didn't help either. In the future I would love to see a study comparing traditional quad strengthening vs posterior chain strengthening on knee stability or knee pain from OA. Edit: don't know why the video won't embed.

Long term, eh? I'm 33 years with no major problems. Standing on concrete floors will make it swell, but very little else. All things considered, I suspect you will have a full life ahead where you notice the scar once in a while.

Good luck. Rob

Craig T wrote:Just had half a medial meniscus removed - the tear was not repairable. I go in to the doc in a few days to get stitches out and get a PT plan, but I want to know - months or years on, how is your knee doing, and what did you have done? Do certain moves like high steps, knee jams, knee bars, heel hooks, or drop-knees bother you? Do you find climbing to be the thing that strains you the most, or are you more concerned with other sports/activities? Have you had success with long term strengthening exercise? There are other threads about knee/meniscus surgery, but typically focusing on short term "when can I get back at it" and not on the long-term forecast.

Well once you got your knee damaged you can not get that as it was before and yes off course there are number of treatments that can help you n retaining your knee. Though there are several exercises even that can help in getting rid of knee pain.I found a book along with the details on such exercises and natural remedies can be beneficial.
you can check book on patellar tendonitis book about patellar tendonitis

I've had about 25% removed in my right knee and 50% in my left knee since the 90's. It never effected my climbing however I could feel it in my knees if I dropped off a boulder problem. I did have to quit running as well. Now in my 50's long approaches with a heavy pack are out as I have knee pain where the meniscus was taken out, also no more aid climbing for the same reason.

I had ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair (minor tear). Took me a year before I could heel-hook with confidence, but I had full ROM and strength about two years out.

I'm now 2.5 years out. The only thing I notice is that in the morning or if it's cold out my knee sometimes feels really "weak", like it's going to give out (especially going down stairs), but once I've done some deep knee bends or walked a flight of stairs it's fine. Also, the location where the hole was drilled in my tibia is sometimes tender to touch, but no big deal.

Anyone else have these issues?