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Symptoms of a meniscus tear include knee swelling, stiffness or pain, and popping or clicking in the knee joint. Mild tears may go unnoticed, but swelling and pain often develop a few days after the injury. The pain associated with a torn meniscus comes from the swelling and stress on the injured knee.
Symptoms of a meniscus tear — the meniscus is a piece of cartilage in the knee that provides structural integrity to the joint — can be hard to recognize, especially if it’s not a serious tear. There are, however, some common symptoms to look out for that suggest that the meniscus is torn. Knee swelling, knee stiffness or pain, and popping or clicking in the knee joint are the most common symptoms of a meniscus tear.
It can be difficult to tell immediately if the meniscus is torn, because it is made up of cartilage and has no nerve endings of its own. Sometimes mild pain is felt at the time of the injury, but swelling and pain often delay development. As a result of the slow swelling, mild tears may go unnoticed in their onset, and more severe tears are primarily recognized by the swelling and subsequent stress on other ligaments or tissues. Those whose meniscus is torn can expect swelling to develop in the knee area over the course of a couple of days after the initial injury.
Swelling is one of the most common symptoms of a meniscus tear. In general, it’s easy to tell if the knee is swollen because it will feel abnormally larger than the unaffected knee and may feel swollen and tight. The swelling puts pressure on the uninjured tissues of the knee and can lead to another of the most common symptoms of a meniscus tear, which is pain.
Because the meniscus itself has no nerve endings, the pain associated with a torn meniscus comes from the swelling and the stress that the swelling places on the injured knee. The pain associated with a meniscus tear is usually not terribly severe, although it varies depending on the severity of the injury. Some patients may not notice any swelling, which usually means they won’t feel much pain and the injury is minor. People who experience swelling and pain from a torn meniscus usually find that bending, straightening, or twisting the knee can cause pain.
A popping or clicking sound in the knee joint is another of the most common symptoms of a meniscus tear. Inhibited motion, which can feel like a catching or popping sensation as you bend or straighten the knee joint, is caused by swelling or pressure that prevents the joint from functioning normally. Another possibility is that pieces of the torn cartilage become trapped in the knee joint and inhibit normal operative motion. Either way, it’s not uncommon to experience the clicking sensation as a result of bending, straightening, or twisting a knee with a torn meniscus.
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