The Best Treatment for a Torn Meniscus in Your Knee

Have you ever torn your meniscus? If you did, you would know it right away. The injury causes a lot of pain and swelling in the knee.

Not too long ago, scientists came up with something they refer to as a “living bandage.” And they say this treatment could revolutionize the way meniscal tears are treated. But is it true?

The meniscus is a thickened crescent-shaped cartilage pad between the two bones in the knee joint. It acts as a smooth surface for the joint to move on. The problem with meniscal tears is that 90% of them occur in a part of the meniscus called the white zone that lacks a blood supply, making them difficult to repair. That’s why the usual treatment for a torn meniscus is to surgically remove the torn section of the meniscus. This often takes away the pain, but there’s a problem with this approach.

The meniscus protects the knee joint. When you remove it surgically, the odds are good that the patient will have some significant arthritis in the knee years later. So, if it were possible to repair the tear without surgery, that would be a good thing.

Recently, scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Bristol in Great Britain treated five patients with white-zone meniscal tears. The procedure involved harvesting stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow, which were then grown for 2 weeks before being seeded onto a membrane scaffold. The scaffold with the treated stem cells was then surgically implanted into the middle of the tear, and the cartilage was sewn up around the bandage to keep it in place.

At the end of two years, although three of the patients had good results, the other two still underwent surgery. And there are a few other problems.

One is that it’s going to take a while to perfect the process. A 60% success rate is not acceptable. Two: the process involves two procedures: one to obtain the stem cells and one to surgically implant them. Three, the cost is likely to be much more than the currently acceptable surgery. And four, the FDA has dramatically limited what doctors can do with stem cells.

Right now, it is forbidden in the U.S. to treat stem cells in an incubator before they are implanted. But there is another way.

Four months ago, one of my patients came in with a white-zone meniscal tear. I treated her with a series of six Prolozone^® injections combined with PRP injections over the course of four months. Today, she is completely without pain or swelling and her knee has full function.

Prolozone is an injection technique I developed years ago that uses the power of homeopathics, vitamins, glucose, and oxygen (in the form of ozone) to stimulate the natural healing processes of the body.

PRP stands for platelet rich plasma. PRP is a process that has been used by doctors for years to help repair damaged tissues. Both of these treatments are easy, painless, safe, and inexpensive. And they work very well together.

So, if you have a torn meniscal tear and you are younger than 70, let me recommend that you see a doctor who knows how to use Prolozone and PRP therapy to stimulate healing. If you are over 70, surgery might be a reasonable solution because by the time arthritis sets in, you will be in your late 80s or 90s.

You can find doctors who know these procedures at www.aaot.us.

Yours for better health,

Frank Shallenberger, MD