Your ability to participate in your sport or activity of choice plays an important role in your life and keeps you physically and mentally fit. So, the idea of being sidelined by surgery for a meniscus tear isn’t something you relish — you want to get an idea about what you’re in for in terms of recovery.
Meniscus surgery is one of the most common orthopedic surgeries in the United States and accounts for 17 out of every 100,000. Despite how common this knee surgery is, our team of board-certified surgeons at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine can say with certainty that no two patients follow the same recovery path after a meniscus tear.
We can’t give you an exact timeline for returning to your sport, but we can provide you with some good rules of thumb.
The first factor that dictates your recovery to a large degree is the type of arthroscopic surgery we’re performing to get your meniscus back into shape. The different types of meniscus surgeries that we perform include:
If we’re performing a meniscectomy, you’ll be load-bearing fairly quickly; patients can often return to play in a matter of weeks rather than months — on average, about 4-6 weeks. If we’re performing a meniscus repair or transplant, recovery will likely be longer and range from 3-9 months.
We also want to point out that recovery timelines can be very different depending upon what sport you want to get back to and at what level.
For example, if you’re a Division 1 soccer player, the general 4- to 6-week recovery timeline after a meniscectomy will, in reality, be more like 8 weeks given the extra workload on the joint. If you’re looking to get back into your weekly golf game, however, your recovery timeline will likely be shorter.
No matter what type of meniscus surgery we perform and what level of athlete you are, your participation in your recovery can very much influence your outcome, including speeding up your recovery.
If you follow our introductions to the letter, participate in physical therapy, and don’t push too hard or too soon, you should be able to gain strength and range of motion in a timely manner.
Rest assured, the team at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine sits down with you before you undergo meniscus surgery to give you a broad idea about what to expect. Then we work with you throughout your recovery to make sure that you can return to your sport as quickly and as safely as possible.
If you have more questions about recovering from an arthroscopic meniscus surgery, please don’t hesitate to call our office in New Braunfels, Texas, at 830-341-1386 or you can request an appointment online.
