Dr. Jeff Abrams
Princeton, New Jersey

A goal is to retain the meniscus, particularly if you are young and the meniscus is salvageable. Early removal can lead to degenerative conditions that may not be seen for ten years.

F. Alan Barber MD, FACS
Plano, Texas

We try to repair any torn meniscus cartilage we find. The good news is that most meniscus tears associated with fresh torn ACLs are repairable (longitudinal tears) if surgery is done in the first few weeks after the injury. Also, when the meniscus repair is done in conjunction with an ACL reconstruction, successful meniscus healing occurs over 90% of the time. On occasion, the torn portion of the meniscus must be removed. When that happens, we try to leave as much of the meniscus as possible, removing only the torn part. With this approach, the long-term problems of removing a meniscus can be reduced, but osteoarthritis remains a possibility.

Dr. Don Johnson
Ottawa, Canada

In the long term, the removal of all, or part of the meniscus, is associated with an increased incidence of osteoarthritis.

Dr. Hugh West
Salt Lake City, Utah

There is no doubt that a meniscus is good for your knee. If the meniscus is badly damaged then the surface cartilage can wear at a faster rate over several years, which causes arthritis in the knee at an earlier age than normal.

When the meniscus is injured, we try to save or repair as much of the normal meniscus as possible. However, parts of the meniscus do not heal very well, and in these situations, you are much better off if a part of the meniscus is removed. We always strike a balance between either fixing the meniscus or removing a part of it, and the decision here depends upon where the meniscus is injured and how likely its particular type of tear is to heal.

While the meniscus used to be removed from the knee much more commonly, orthopedic surgeons have made a lot of progress in understanding how to fix certain types of tears so that as much of the meniscus can be saved as possible.