Meniscus Surgery Alternative
If you’ve ever torn your meniscus—specific fibrous tissue in the knee—you’re not alone. We treat patients every day with meniscus tears and who are not able to receive surgery.
Luckily, there is a non-surgical, non-invasive alternative treatment for meniscus tears: regenerative medicine therapy.
What is the typical treatment for a meniscus tear?
The traditional treatment for a meniscus tear has been what is called an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. This means that a surgeon will go into your knee with a camera and clip away the diseased tissue. Recent studies have found no difference in the outcomes of patients having these surgeries versus no treatment or conservative treatment (for example, physical therapy).
The problem is that the meniscus acts as a shock absorber for the cartilage, so if you remove even part of it, let alone all of it, you can advance already existing arthritis and potentially create an environment for the development of arthritis.
This has been common knowledge for many years; yet this continues to be the most common orthopedic surgery in the United States.
The treatment paradigm has shifted to the idea of preserving the meniscus whenever possible.
Meniscus Surgery Alternative
It’s inevitable that many of us will get a meniscus tear in our lives; the problem is that many of us don’t know how to recognize it.
In fact, a recent study found that in patients over 50 with knee MRIs, 35% of them had meniscus tears and only 1/3 of those had symptoms consistent with that injury.
So you can see there may be many unnecessary surgeries as a result. Rather than rush to surgery, there are alternative options to treat a torn meniscus.
At Motus Biologics, we treat meniscus tears on a daily basis using regenerative cellular therapies.
To be clear, there are certain conditions where surgery is absolutely necessary, such as if your knee is locking. In these cases, mesenchymal cells will not be effective.
What other questions do you have about regenerative medicine treatments?
Motus Biologics is here to be your online resource for all-things regenerative medicine. Please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss your options with you.
You can also use our free Virtual Consultation tool to determine the best treatment for your pain points.