The new study on meniscus surgery and arthritis looked at patients over time as they had their surgery and then followed them for 2 years. They measured a few bio mechanical parameters with walking, but one interesting one was peak force in the leg as it begins to hits the ground. This force was important because earlier studies had associated an increase in this metric with more arthritis. Sure enough, in the partial menisectomy patients versus the non-operated group, this peak force increased. So the authors concluded that this was a bit of a double whammy for knee surgery patients. Not only is the cushioning effect of the meniscus compromised because there’s less of it, but for some reason the whole leg is taking more force of the type that can lead to arthritis!

The upshot? There are no spare parts in the body that can be removed. Knee meniscus surgery has no evidence that it’s effective and there’s evidence that it harms knees by leading to more arthritis. This last bit of evidence continues to mount. So why are we still doing these surgeries again?

Check out the link for the full article on Regenexx.Com: http://www.regenexx.com/2014/08/meniscus-surgery-arthritis/