There are many treatment options for meniscal injuries:

Meniscal Repair

Traumatic meniscal tears in the otherwise healthy meniscus are often caused by sporting injuries and these can be diagnosed by clinical examination and the use of MRI scans. The gold standard treatment of meniscal tears is to arthroscopically (key-hole surgery) repair them and over the last decade significant advances have been made to allow most meniscal tears to be repaired. One of the challenges with meniscal tears is that the meniscus has generally poor blood supply, especially the central region (called the white zone). The possible success of a meniscal repair and the pros and cons of the procedure will be discussed with Tom Kurien.

Meniscal root repair

If the meniscus tears within 1cm of its attachment into the bone, it is called a root tear. It is clear to make this distinction between a traditional meniscal tear and a root tear as the operation required to repair the root tear is different. Lateral meniscal root tears are associated with high energy injures and are often associated with concomitant ACL rupture. Lateral meniscal root tears can completely defunction the meniscus and can result in the progression of osteoarthritis of the knee.
Medial meniscal root tears can occur without trauma and are most common in middle aged people. There is also a high chance of progression of osteoarthritis with medial meniscal root tears.

Removal of part of the meniscus (partial meniscectomy)

A degenerative tear in the meniscus is very common in the middle age and as we all get older as arthritis starts to develop on the knee. Traditionally these were all treated surgical where the damaged or torn meniscus was removed using keyhole surgery. Recently a number of trials have been conducted showing that degenerative tears of the meniscus which cause pain can be improved with physiotherapy with or without an injection of steroid into the knee to reduce the inflammation. In cases where this has failed to improve the symptoms of pain or where there is continued locking or catching of the knee arthroscopic surgery is advised where the damaged or torn meniscus is removed.