Surgery may worsen knee osteoarthritis, study says, so what could help?

A common knee surgery — the partial removal of meniscus cartilage — may provide little benefit to people with knee osteoarthritis and may actually worsen their prospects for long-term knee health, according to new research from Finland, whose findings are reported in a correspondence paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine . Study participants who underwent surgeries to remove torn parts of meniscus cartilage in their knees faired more poorly over the next 10 years than those who had undergone sham surgeries in which no cartilage was removed.

People who received the sham surgery had less knee pain, had increased use of the knee, and experienced less later osteoarthritis compared to those who had had meniscectomies. The meniscus is a piece of tough, C-shaped rubbery cartilage in the knee that provides shock absorption between the shin bone and the thigh bone.

It can tear as the result of a sudden twist. More commonly, however, tears occur with age, and commonly go hand-in-hand with osteoarthritis.