Horizontal Tear of Posterior Horn - What am I looking at?
Hello all. New here and hoping to gain some insight from others’ experiences. I am 41 yr. old male, 6’2” 185 lbs, pretty active lifestyle. A few months ago, while crouching in my garden, my knee locked in place during flexion. It required having to “pop” it back into extension. The “pop” was really loud! There was no acute pain following this and I was able to walk fine. Considered it maybe to be a one-off. Unfortunately, this locking started to occur more frequently. My wife witnessed and heard it while I was kneeling to grab something off the shelf at the grocery store and immediately was like “Make an appointment - TODAY.” My medical coverage is through Kaiser (not ideal in this scenario). Saw my PCP who barely put my knee into flexion, ordered x-Ray (completely useless in this case), referred me to Kaiser PT who was booked months out. I already suspected medial meniscus tear. Luckily I had pre-existing relationship with outside PT that was able to, within minutes, recreate the locking through flexion, told me I had a medial meniscus tear. Throughout this entire experience I have not had any acute pain. After popping back into to place, the joint is a little sore. The biggest pain has been not being able to crouch, kneel, abruptly pivot, engage in much lateral movement that rotates the joint, and having to be extremely mindful of that. There has also been a vague feeling of instability at the medial joint while doing things such as navigating stairs. Not ideal for an avid hiker, angler, gym 3 times a week individual with 2 rambunctious dogs. I fought tooth and nail to have my case elevated to imaging through Kaiser and finally got an MRI this week. I received the results today: “Horizontal tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus extending to the inferior and superior articular surfaces”.
So now I’m wondering:
1.) What is the likely treatment with this particular type of tear. Is it likely to be conservative or is the locking indicative of needing surgical intervention?
2.) How do my age, weight, level of activity/lifestyle factor into treatment decision?
3.) Is there anything I should prepare for in anticipation of follow-up, any specific issues I should advocate for on my behalf?
4.) Is this particular type of tear something I am going to have to deal with for the remainder of my life. Are there any preventative exercises I should be focusing on to strengthen my legs for a more positive long-term outcome
Apologies for long winded post. My brain is just working overtime trying to wrap my head around this. Any personal experience, expertise anyone might be able to share is beyond appreciated.