Menisci Tear? Help with terminology please

Of course they can be repaired in his age group. It depends on the type/location of tear however.

I agree.  I was going to say the same thing.   I had a repair when I was in my fifties!

You are right that location type and age are all factors that the surgeon considers when dealing with a torn cartilage. My point is that degenerative tears can rarely, if ever be repaired and they are the ones most likely after age 35. Only 7% of tears in the US are repaired! The rest are left alone (physio) or trimmed. Cannot find any figures for the UK. Here is aquote from the Mayo clinic below..

i tried to cut and paste some stuff from the Wheeless on line text book but have not been able but it is there for free if you want technical detail. Other treatments that are named in patient.info web site are not routinely available because they are so much more expensive or experimental and NICE has not supported some of them.

Mayo clinic.

Surgery

If your knee remains painful, stiff or locked, your doctor may recommend surgery. It's sometimes possible to repair a torn meniscus, especially in children and young adults. If the tear can't be repaired, the meniscus may be surgically trimmed. Surgery may be done through tiny incisions using an arthroscope. After surgery, you will need to do exercises to optimize knee strength and stability.

so those two of you who have had repairs are in a small fortunately minority. 

.....meant to say ..small fortunate minority. I also wonder if some surgeons say they have 'repaired the damage' when what they really mean is trimmed the ragged bits or tidied it up. Maybe I am being too cynical. 

The OP stated his symptoms occured after a fall. This would not be degenerative. A person's age has nothing to do with whether or not a meniscus can be repaired. The odds, due to age, of how a meniscus is torn is irrelavant. We don't even know if the OP tore his meniscus. He can go see 10 different doctor's and get 10 different opinions on his knee. He could have pain in the knee joint being cause by almost a half dozen different things, including muscular at this point with how long this has gone on.

"so those two of you who have had repairs are in a small fortunately minority" Not sure who you are talking. I only see one person state this.

 

I don't think I was in the "minority" having a repair at that age.  The tar in my cartilage was due to a fall I had.  I see you are quoting from the Mayo clinic. I actually had my op done in a private hospital and the surgery was done by a top surgeon.   What a surgeon intends to do in any case is entirely up to him so I don't see that quoting from the Mayo clinic has any relevance.

Your own experience is very valid and you are fortunate to have such a skilled surgeon. I tore both my cartilages within 18 months of each other, and neither was repairable at age 40 (I was an amateur footballer). My son was 22 when he tore his landing awkwardly heading a football and his was not repairable. My friend tore his skiing last year along with his ACL - neither was repaired and he has made a good recover aged 58. And I refer you to yet another source of information:

BOSTAA (British Orthopaedic Sports Trauma and Arthroscopy Association) 

"Only about 10 - 20% of meniscal tears are actually repairable. However, these tend to be in younger patients, in whom the consequences of loss of a meniscus are that much greater."

That is a minority!

 

Can I just ask what probably  happens if it can't be repaired, if it is of course a tear as the orthopod and physio suspect, all i know is that it is still extremely painful and quite swollen.

There are four options that I can think of.

1. Conservative management with physio. Some tears simply stop giving symptoms and are not in the way of function so everything settles down.

2. Repair -fixing the torn bit back in to place. The text book I mentioned online Wheeless, gives a list of the technical issues about when a repair job is likely to work. some zones/areas of the cartilage have very poor blood supply and do not mend oven if surgery is done.

3. Trimming off the ragged/ torn fragments that are in the way of function. Mine was stuck in a partly bent position(locked) until I had arthroscopy. They trim sit back to a stable smooth surface. they try not to remove more than 20% of the surface otherwise the chance of early arthritis  goes up.

4. Very rarely done these days is to remove the whole meniscus. That is the worse outcome!

I was back to work in 2 weeks and back to football in 6, with a lot of hard  work with the physiotherapist. Mine was all NHS. 17 years later I have no knee problems. My son had no post op physio  and still runs 10 K regularly.

someone else might have some other ideas as well. 

Thanks for your help