Lateral meniscus after 30 months post ACLR

[HaRry_28]

Hi, some of you may remember me in the years of post ACLR in 2005.

Now some 30 months later, I need to know if there are any tips or advice on the 'catching' of the lateral meniscus that I feel when flexed at 30 degrees roughly. Bending the leg at the knee in the air, I feel a catching point where the lateral femoral condyle seems to be scratching the edge of the extracted cartlidge part of the LM. Its a funny feeling and causes a little instability in the knee when standing up from that position.

Any help appreciated,
Harry.

[celinenj03]

Hi Harry! I remember you. I have this too, but I did have a lateral meniscectomy (partial) and have some articular cartilage damage there as well. It seems when I fell my bones smacked together on the lateral side crushing the meniscus and bone. This was from the original injury. I guess you could have deleloped a sort of tear there. Sounds like something is going on. Maybe an MRI would show it, Mine never did. Finally had to have it scoped and surgeon found it.

[HaRry_28]

Hi celinenj03, I remember you too! How's it going? I hope you are well.

I agree that something is happening in the parts you mentioned and that the impact was when I damaged the articular cartlidge and LM. I have found however that when I keep it active and moving there is less pain but sometimes if I leave the exercise there is a real sharp pain like from the middle of the knee! My OS did say to me that if anything happens in the 24 month post op to contact him, so I might do that to get his advice. Mine was a partial tear too but you might be right that there is a developing tear at the moment. Otherwise since last posting years back my Quads have regained 100% strength as have my hammy's.
Could also be beacause of my ACL graft loosening could'nt it?

Cheers Harry.

[celinenj03]

When you damaged your articular cartilage are you saying you had a bone bruise? I had that, but then after some months part of the cartilage broke off, it just never healed. I think you would really know if something like this happened. I don't think it is your graft loosening up though, I think you would know that too. You didn't mention any swelling. If you had a significant tear, I'm sure around the kneecap or in the back of the corner of the knee would swell a bit after activity. All I know is mine catches in that area all the time and I'm really not sure if it is my meniscus or my acl graft catching. I've always had a crickety crackedy knee, at least since my ACLR.

[HaRry_28]

yes i do remember him saying that i had bone bruising and that it was quite severe, level 3 out of 4 whatever that means. i guess you're right if there was something really wrong then there would be swelling and constant pain. It seems our knee's are similar in description, although you're a triad!
You're saying a piece of your cartlidge came off? How painful was this?

[celinenj03]

How painful? That's a hard question because with all the trauma when I was first hurt, I wasn't sure exactly where pain was coming from just my whole knee hurt. Then it was surgery and surgery so I always thought it was due to recovering from that. You definitely feel it though, if it gets to the point of necrosis which is where the bone bruise doesn't heal but actually a piece of the bone dies and then flakes off. That is what happened to me. Now it hurts if I put a lot of stress on that area. Incidentally the area filled itself in with fibrocartilage which isn't as great as the original but it's okay for now and my surgeon also poked some holes in it to stimulate some more growth. It isn't bad as far as pain right now, but very cracky back there. Almost whenever I walk a certain way it will crack like a knuckle cracking. I imagine the area might swell if I overdid it, but I try not to.

[HaRry_28]

So I guess the pain has died down after the surgery you had. I do try even now to remind myself of certain things that help. For example I noticed after my ACL reconstruction when I was at the jogging stage (roughly 2-3 months post op) that keeping my feet pointing outwards as possible helped with the posterolateral corner. Keeping my weight down has also helped, because naturally its the legs that take the strain for the weight. And of course the stretches that I did far more thoroughly than I do now, like SLR's and the more targetting ones such as the iliotibial band stretches. It's weird really, I bumped into David Dunn the footballer in a pub and gave him advice on strengthening his hamstring!!

[celinenj03]

Yeah, I'm sure you could have an honorary degree after going through this... You sure do learn a lot! I often worry and wonder about my posterolateral corner. I had a few OS's check my knee and no one said anything about it, but that is where most of my pain was since that is the side again, that got sort of squished when I fell.

[HaRry_28]

Did your OS perform a dial test? you know when lying on the belly and the OS turns the foot outwards? I had one and it seemed originally that there might be a PCL tear too, but the mri found that it was intact -thank god. I may need to see the OS when I get the time and an appointment!!

[HaRry_28]

Hi folks, I think that the lateral meniscus does catch at times when the knee is bent at roughly 20-30\degrees and I am finding it annoying, i can feel it for example when climbing the stairs