Meniscal Tear Epidemiology and Diagnostic Challenges

Meniscal tears are presented as a common knee injury with important long-term consequences, especially their strong link to later osteoarthritis. The overview explains what the meniscus does, why damage matters, and why management is clinically important given how often meniscal surgery is performed, particularly in adults over 40. It also introduces the main categories of tears: traumatic tears in younger people and degenerative tears in middle-aged and older adults, while noting that the distinction is not always clear. A major focus is diagnosis. Common clinical tests are outlined, including joint line tenderness, McMurray’s, Apley’s, and Thessaly tests. Learners are shown that these tests have limited diagnostic accuracy, with joint line tenderness mainly useful for ruling out tears in patients under 60. The summary also highlights a key diagnostic challenge: MRI findings do not reliably match symptoms, because meniscal abnormalities are frequently seen even in painless knees. Other knee conditions can produce similar symptoms, including so-called mechanical symptoms such as catching and locking. Overall, diagnosis should rely on combined clinical history, examination, tests, and selective imaging.