Gramercy Pain Center is your source for effective interventional pain management plans. Each of our locations across New Jersey offers residents with world-class services from our team of highly qualified providers. Together with our top-notch facilities, we can help you manage the chronic pain caused by your conditions and minimize its effects on your day-to-day activities.
Your meniscus plays a critical role in your knee movement and your knees’ ability to carry your weight. When it’s torn from strenuous activities, it can affect your knee’s ability to extend or support your body weight. And if left unchecked, the damage can progress and become more difficult to treat. To stop the damage from progressing and managing your pain and other symptoms, schedule an appointment with a meniscus tear specialist in a Gramercy Pain Center location closest to your area.
Each of your knees has a c-shaped cartilage in the middle of your shinbone (tibia) and your thigh bone (femur) called the meniscus. This is responsible for cushioning the impact between the two bones and softening the blow to prevent frictional damage. It also helps with dispersing the weight between the femur and tibia to prevent injuries.
When you forcefully twist your knee from accidents or strenuous activities, you can end up tearing the meniscus in one or both knees. Within 24 hours, your meniscus may become inflamed and experience chronic pain and swelling. This can make it difficult to bend your knees, extend your knee fully, or shift your weight to let the damaged knee carry your weight.
Most patients with a torn meniscus are often athletes that have injured themselves while playing. Your meniscus can be broken from aggressively twisting or rotating your knee, especially when you’ve put your full weight on it. This means agile movements like jumping, twisting, pivoting, deep squatting, heavy lifting, and other similar movements can lead to a knee injury which can result in a meniscus tear.
Non-athletes can also get this when performing strenuous activities or while doing things like prolonged kneeling. People who have just torn their meniscus may take about 24 hours before they feel the pain, inflammation, and swelling, especially for a minor cartilage tear. If left untreated, however, the damage can progress and lead to symptoms like:
Visiting a meniscus tear specialist can prevent the damage from getting worse and becoming more difficult to treat. Your specialist can diagnose your condition with a physical exam and imaging tests like an x-ray or MRI.
If you’ve been diagnosed with a meniscal tear, your custom treatment will be tailored based on the severity of your damage as well as other factors that can affect your recovery. Some of the conservative treatments we use for pain management include:
Orthopedic surgery is usually a last resort for more severe cases where conservative options may not be enough to manage the symptoms of a torn meniscus. If you’ve exhausted all non-surgical options, we can refer you to an orthopedic surgeon that can perform surgical treatment (such as knee arthroscopy) on meniscal tears.
Knee pain can affect your movement and how well you can perform both your hobbies and your daily activities. For athletes, a torn meniscus can affect your performance, especially when you’re distracted by the pain. It can also make simple tasks like walking short distances, climbing staircases, and other knee movements unbearable.
With Gramercy Pain Center, we can help you reclaim your quality of life and minimize the effect your condition has on your day-to-day living. Our facilities in every one of our locations are fully-equipped to handle your custom treatment plans, and our team can provide compassionate and effective care that can help you get on the road to recovery.
Don’t limit your mobility and bear chronic knee pain on your own. At Gramercy Pain Center, you can expect top-notch facilities and experienced medical providers that can implement pain management plans designed for your needs. Start a safe and quick treatment for your torn cartilage by scheduling your appointment with a knee specialist today and get a custom treatment plan.
