Meniscus
Read Your Scan Editorial Team·Last updated
Written from published radiology references and reviewed for plain language. Not written or signed by a physician, and not a diagnosis. How we write these pages →
In plain language
One of two crescent-shaped cushions of cartilage that pad and stabilize the knee joint.
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Where you'll see this
This wording turns up on Knee MRI reports — MRI imaging of the knee. A knee MRI is very good at showing soft tissues that X-rays cannot, including the menisci (the knee’s cushions), the major ligaments, the tendons, the joint cartilage, and the bones. Doctors order it after an injury, for pain, swelling, locking, or instability, or to plan treatment. Some findings, like mild wear, are common with age and may not be the source of symptoms — your doctor connects the images to your exam.
Questions worth asking your doctor
- Do the MRI findings explain the pain, swelling, or instability I feel?
- Is any finding likely age-related rather than from a recent injury?
- What are my treatment options, including non-surgical ones?
- Would physical therapy help before considering other steps?
- Do I need any follow-up, and when should I check back?
How common is this?
The menisci are named on every knee MRI report. Each knee has two — a C-shaped wedge of tough cartilage on the inner and outer side of the joint — sitting between the thigh bone and the shin bone. They spread load across the joint surface and add stability, and they are one of the structures MRI shows best.
When should I worry?
The important thing to know is that the meniscus has almost no blood supply except at its outer rim, which is why tears heal poorly and why treatment depends so much on where a tear sits. Age-related changes within the meniscus are extremely common and frequently symptomless: degenerative meniscal tears are found in a large share of middle-aged and older people with no knee pain at all. So a tear on a report is not automatically the explanation for a painful knee, and the match between the finding and the symptoms is what matters.
What happens next
The evidence for conservative treatment of degenerative meniscal tears is now strong, and physiotherapy performs comparably to arthroscopic surgery for most of them. Surgery is more clearly useful for traumatic tears in younger people, and for mechanical symptoms such as genuine locking. Where a tear is at the outer rim with a blood supply, repair rather than removal is preferred, since removing meniscal tissue accelerates wear in the joint.
Frequently asked questions
- Does a meniscal tear need surgery?
- Often not. For degenerative tears in middle-aged and older adults, physiotherapy performs about as well as arthroscopic surgery in trials. Surgery is more clearly indicated for traumatic tears in younger people and for genuine mechanical locking.
- Can a meniscus heal by itself?
- Only at the outer rim, which has a blood supply. The inner two thirds have essentially none, which is why tears there do not heal and why the location of a tear determines whether repair is even possible.
- I have a tear but no pain. Is that possible?
- Very much so, and it is common. Degenerative meniscal tears are found frequently in people with no knee symptoms at all, which is why a tear on a scan is not assumed to be the cause of pain without a clinical assessment.
Other words on the same report
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