Pain after partial meniscectomy?

September 4, 2023 12:37 PM

How long after a partial meniscectomy did your knee pain go away?

I had a partial meniscectomy on my right knee 12 days ago. For two days after the surgery I felt fine. Then I guess the nerve blockers wore off. Now the pain is even worse than it was before the surgery. I can walk with some pain, and I can stand around ok, but I can hardly walk up stairs and there's a constant pain when I'm sitting around. Range of motion isn't very good. It's a different pain than I had before, but it's worse now.

From what I read, if they stitch up your meniscus, recover takes a lot longer and there's more pain. I was under the impression, however, if they remove the offending chunk, as they did for me, there should be less pain and recovery should be very quick. I read of people walking out of the hospital and never feeling pain again.

Perhaps I was too optimistic for my recovery but I feel like it shouldn't hurt this much.

I have a follow-up appointment on the 11th to get my stitches out and I start PT tomorrow. I am icing and taking Tylenol and aspirin as directed. The pain isn't so bad that I need to take my Oxy.

So I know I have some work to do and more time to recover. But given what I read about a meniscectomy vs. meniscus repair, this doesn't seem normal.

I guess I am looking for assurance that, yeah, this is perfectly normal and the pain will go away in time or, maybe, no this is not normal and you should beat the surgeon over the head with your shin bone after it falls off next Tuesday.

I'm asking specifically about a partial meniscectomy. Not looking for "I hurt for four months after they fixed my shoulder" sort of advice.

Owie.

posted by bondcliff to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

I think your expectations are unrealistic?

I had this same surgery (arthoscopic partial meniscectomy) a few years ago. The first 48 hours I had almost no range of motion, and pain was definitely worse than pre-surgery, but overall was moderate and manageable with tylenol and ibuprofen. Day 3-5, pain was better but more swelling, still limited range of motion. Day 6-7 swelling much reduced and range of motion increased. At 14 days things were much better, still not full range of motion but no pain or swelling, and was able to do 4+ mile walks.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 12:54 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I had a partial meniscectomy and had swelling and limited range of motion for ~1 week or so. No real pain that I remember, but I also didn't have any pain before the surgery, just a very unstable knee because of the tear.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 2:57 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: They snipped a flap of a tear off mine laparoscopically and I had no pain after. Not sure if that counts as partial.
posted by Iteki at 11:39 PM on September 4, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I had a partial meniscectomy and pretty much the same experience as soylent00FF00: swelling and pain for about two weeks, back to exercise after that, and back to full activity (running) within a month.

Be warned though: for me the pain never fully went away. My ortho warned me this could be the case, so it wasn’t a surprise, but it was a bummer. It fluctuates, most of the time it’s a 1/10 pain, annoying but I can still run and backpack and climb and everything. But from time to time it’s like a 4-5/10, enough that I limp and need to take a few days off exercise.
posted by dorothy hawk at 9:35 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Follow up: A little more than a month later and the pain is much better, though there's still some there. Most days I can walk about a mile before it sets in. PT is going well and I think it's helping. I have another follow-up appointment next week. Still, it kind of feels like it may never go away fully and I'll also be able to predict the weather with my knee for the rest of my life.
posted by bondcliff at 3:50 PM on October 10, 2023 [1 favorite]