When this naturally occurring process takes place, in general in the presence of some pain, patients expectation is to have an arthroscope to have the cartilage debrided, or more commonly we term "cleaned up". However this recent blog refers to a number of research studies that indicate that this type of arthroscope to the knee provides results that you would get if you actually didn't have the surgery, or if you and a SHAM surgery.
These results indicate that patient who underwent a sham procedure, such as just having their knee washed out with saline, did as well as those who actually had the meniscectomy/debridement. Further to this, by performing this meniscectomy it also states that the knee can accelerate knee arthritis!
So perhaps we need to consider other options with these patients such as physiotherapy, weight reduction with a dietitian, exercise physiology programming and general strengthening around the knee. Something worth considering.
For the full article please follow this link:
http://blogs.bmj.com/bjsm/2014/06/15/time-to-stop-meniscectomies-for-degenerative-tears-practice-must-catch-up-with-evidence/