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Knee meniscus problems (Read 4307 times)

TobyD

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Knee meniscus problems
June 22, 2015, 01:18:23 pm
Seen a couple of friends recently with tweaked meniscus problems, it occurred to me that wearing toe down, extremely asymmetric climbing shoes may predispose these injuries by placing the knee joint at an unfamiliar angle during loading.

This may not be remotely causal relationship; just wondered if anyone else had similar experiences, or agreed/ disagreed? 

Johnny Brown

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#1 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 22, 2015, 05:32:42 pm
Fairly sure mine was initially caused by walking down a glacier in the afternoon sun, post-holing thigh deep every other step, jarring and twisting the knee, heavy bag etc. Then it tore properly doing a deep rock over with my heel trapped behind a jug indoors. On rock I'm sure my leg would have adjusted to a natural position.

petejh

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#2 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 22, 2015, 06:03:43 pm
How bad was yours JB and what, if any, rehab work did you do?
Purely for the benefit of the wider ukb collective of course.. Not that I'm personally interested, having not just spent an entire trip to a world class sport crag not climbing (you'd be proud) due to not duffing a meniscus while standing still and attempting to 'turn to the left' .

kelvin

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#3 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 22, 2015, 07:14:04 pm
I've had two ops on the meniscus in the right knee - one from a big wipe out waterskiing twenty years ago and the other about four years back, coincidentally when I was doing lots of winter stuff i.e. wearing crampons and a heavy sack.

As far as rehab after an op, I was pretty much good to go within a couple of weeks the first time but the second took a little longer as the op was a lot more involved as other stuff needed doing too. My personal experience is that when the meniscus needs sorting, it needs sorting. I tend to try and prevent issues before they occur by keeping the knee as strong as I can by doing one legged squats etc as there's a lot of play in them now but once it's torn, I'm in trouble.

As an aside, I've torn the left knee medial ligament twice when drop kneeing - no issues with the meniscus in that knee tho. I've not long had a MRI on it.

*played football and rugby for the best part of 20yrs before climbing, so may not be relevant at all

Johnny Brown

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#4 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 23, 2015, 10:14:06 am
I had an Orthroscopy. I think I was 25 at the time. The doc said he couldn't find the tear identified on the MRI, but 'tidied things up a bit'. It had locked up several times in the run up to the op (when the ligament snags on the tear), and did so once afterwards, but then settled down. I am still aware of it 12 years on, but it doesn't stop me doing stuff. I think my knees probably got a bit hammered due to highballing aged 16-21 before pads.

Rehab was pretty quick bar the one lock-up. I actually went bouldering the same day as the op, but avoided falling/ rocking over. I had some physio including various levels of mumbo jumbo from ultrasound (no idea) to acupuncture (seemed to work) to reiki (not for the cynical). The main thing I did was a bit of cycling, which builds up strength without shockloading.

I've never put my heel behind a jug again though. Nasty feeling that was! Another reason not to climb indoors...

SA Chris

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#5 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 23, 2015, 10:57:48 am
There's a prob at the local seacliffs which I've avoided as it involves locking your foot into a hole and doing two tenuous moves, and worried it will knacker my knee.

TobyD

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#6 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 24, 2015, 08:36:17 am
some physio including various levels of mumbo jumbo from ultrasound (no idea) to acupuncture (seemed to work) to reiki (not for the cynical). The main thing I did was a bit of cycling, which builds up strength without shockloading.

ultrasound very likely totally ineffective. I wonder how your knee would have done without the arthroscopy, and just going cycling plenty with gradual build up.

Johnny Brown

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#7 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 24, 2015, 11:46:18 am
Me too. It was giving me gyp last night, so it never recovered 100%. Cartilage doesn't regenerate though does it?

kelvin.a.mann

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#8 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 24, 2015, 01:36:38 pm
When you say gyp, do you mean locking up and that sharp pain? I didn't have any issues after the first op or indeed after the second - there's plenty of other knee pain goes on tho. I even ran 69 miles 9 months after the second op, before that it was locking three or four times a day.

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Johnny Brown

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#9 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 24, 2015, 03:39:00 pm
No, only locked once since the op, and not as severely as before. I just mean pain and a feeling of instability/ weakness in the area of the problem/operation.

kelvin

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#10 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 24, 2015, 07:15:16 pm
Dunno what happened there, my phone seemed to have made a new account.
Sorry to hear that Johnny - one legged squats have helped massively, might be worth a try?

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TobyD

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#11 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 26, 2015, 07:35:37 am
No, only locked once since the op, and not as severely as before. I just mean pain and a feeling of instability/ weakness in the area of the problem/operation.

sounds possibly like you may have some patella tracking issues, usually comes from quad muscle imbalance; VMO exercises are by far  the most common thing to target. all with the proviso that i haven't seen your knee, and it could be some thing else entirely; that's just one of the most common reasons it might feel like that, and vmo exercises are very unlikely to do any harm!

duncan

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#12 Re: Knee meniscus problems
June 26, 2015, 08:06:19 am
Cartilage doesn't regenerate though does it?

The outer third of the knee meniscus has a blood supply and can probably heal to a degree. A massive tear wont but you don't have one of those. In any case, minor meniscal damage and pain are only weakly linked. Most people in their 40s and above will have some 'abnormality' if you scanned their knees, pain or no pain.

- one legged squats have helped massively, might be worth a try?

Given the type of climbing you favour, you need to be able to do one-legged squats effortlessly. Improving your quads. strength to weight ratio is probably the single best thing you can do for your knees. Patellar tracking/VMO activation is a little more controversial and, as Toby says, couldn't be determined other than via a close examination.
 

 

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