Do I Have A Meniscus Tear? | Knee Tests You Can Do At Home

Is your knee pain being caused by a torn meniscus? 5 Tests you can do at home to test for a meniscus tear or injury. Diagnostic meniscus tests presented by a physical therapist.

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WHAT IS A MENISCUS?
You have two pads of cartilage in your knee - one on the inside part of your tibia and one on the outside part. These menisci (plural form of meniscus) in your knee joint serve basically two purposes: 1) add cushion between the two bones (femur and tibia) and 2) provide stability to the knee joint.

WHAT IS A MENISCUS TEAR?
A meniscus tear is when one of these cartilaginous pads gets a tear in it - most often from some form of trauma or force. Most injuries usually happen as the person is weight bearing (pressure on the meniscus) and twists, creating a torquing force on the meniscus. The result can be a tear either on the medial or lateral meniscus at any location along the pad.

I typically don’t see meniscus injuries happen “slowly over time”. If you’ve got knee pain that has slowly developed and is progressively getting worse chances are it may not be your meniscus at play or it could possibly be an old meniscus injury that you’ve re-aggravated.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF A MENISCUS INJURY
The first thing I look for when I suspect an injury to a meniscus is “how did the injury occur?” Typically the history is a slip and fall or other accident/injury. Meniscus injuries are common in sports (soccer and football) when your foot is on the ground and your knee buckles or twists. This injury may or may not be accompanied by a “pop”, bruising, and swelling. People with a meniscus tear will also complain of a “clicking” in their knee with walking or stairs.

5 HOME TESTS FOR A MENISCUS TEAR
The following are tests that I take my patients through when I suspect they may have a meniscus injury. If you perform these tests and any of them are “positive” (meaning any of them are painful) you may have an injured meniscus. In that case you should go get your knee assessed by a trained medical professional who will be able to recommend a plan of care that’s going to be best for you.

The tests for your meniscus knee pain presented in this video are:

1. JOINT LINE TENDERNESS - palpate along the joint line (either inside or outside depending on where your pain is located). Is it tender to push in this area?

2. LACK OF FULL EXTENSION - can you straighten your leg out fully? If it is painful or there’s a mechanical block you may have a meniscus injury.

3. MCMURRAY’S TEST - lay on your back with your knee fully bent. With the help of a partner, have them rotate your foot to the inside and slowly extend your knee. If it’s painful or if there’s a “block” keeping you from extending fully, it may indicate a meniscus injury. Repeat the test rotating your foot to the outside.

4. APLEY’S COMPRESSION TEST - lay on your stomach and bend your knee. Have a partner push down through your foot/tibia and rotate your lower leg in (checks lateral meniscus) and out (checks medial meniscus). Reproduction of pain would be a positive test.

5. THESSALY (DISCO) TEST - stand on your injured leg with a slight (5 degree) bend in your knee. Rotate your upper body as far as you can to the left and then also to the right. Perform this 3 times. Now bend your knee a little deeper (to 20 degrees) and perform the three rotations again. Pain with this motion could indicate a potential meniscus injury.

This is an injury that CAN get better on its own depending on the location and the severity of the injury. However, my recommendation would be to go get it checked out by a trained professional.

[galaxyalexanderh]

Even the thought of doing these right now makes me wanna cry🤣🤣🤣 my knee hurts so bad

[rosep]

You are great!! Thank you, , I have meniscus tear since 2016, , no health insurance, but now old & have Medicare, , it's hell I can't walk some days & this at least gives me hope to have my doctor informed.its just so good to see there's proof of such an injury..I can't bend down on my knee either, , like to change the litter box of my cat, ,I have to sit on my butt. When bending the knee I can feel a tight strecth that's really scary.. so my movements are limited.. The iceing on the cake too is last August I fell because of my right knee & broke my arm the humaus bone in tow places.. So again it's a life style change because there's really no doctor that will do Medicare... Thank you for listening & all your video's God Bless, , I'm so happy to find these..it just will let my doctor know the pain is not just in my head. Also had MRI done in 2016 & just had MRI done September 1 2021

[justme]

Just stopped by to thank my favorite YouTube channel's couple for their relentless work and efforts in keeping us fit and healthy. Even though life pushes us out and I can't always keep up with the videos as I used or would like to, I want you both to know that I always always always remember you when I am doing my daily exercises, specially the ones meant to heal DR. So, thanks Camille and Jared for being such fantastic human lights! All the best for the bests!! Watched, like, and commented. Checked! :))

[sillyconvalleygirl]

"I'm going to create some stress on that meniscus" cringing here with my undiagnosed knee injury. LOL. Great vid - thank you!

[fred]

My doctor says its osteoarthritis. I can't bend the knee when walking. It wants to collapse. I can't do normal daily functions. I am in so much pain. Physical Therapy did not help a bit. Back to the doctor next week. Thanks for helping us out. I test positive for meniscus tear.

[juliemarr]

Thank you for clearly demonstrating
These test exercises. I needed this.
Y'all have a great day.

[highstakes]

You know you tore your meniscus when you wince in pain just watching this

[meenap]

Excellent and very clear, concise information! Thank you so much for the help! Blessings! (PS: You two are a great team!)

[emmaeverth]

Love that you go right to the point, thanks

[victoriasaad]

Im scream crying in pain when my daughter helped me do these. But my doctor told a year ago verbatim, "there's nothing wrong with you." I was a hairdresser and caregiver working 60-65 hours a week. Now I cant keep up with my 85 yr old grandma. Thanks medi-cal and completely incompetent medical professionals.

[adamgarcia]

I hurt my knees after walking on sand on the beach, it's been 10 months already, but I am getting healthier now slowly. Probably, I had some knees issues that were asymptomatic and the sand and bad flip flops started the flare ups, my pain started suddenly, it felt like a dull ache sometimes with clicking and stiffness. Thank God I am healing, it's been a long process.

[MusicAdvocat]

I really like you vids Jared! TY! tell your wife she's pretty and glad she assists you for our benefit, you also make a cute couple! anyway, thanks for what your doing!

[stevedietrich]

Excellent information. Simple (relatively) tests that we can do at home to try and determine the nature and extent of our problem. I like your no-nonsense style of presenting the information. Time has value.

[darrenmetal]

All exercises causes a little pain one more than the other. I found out I have a medial meniscus . I got this for 4 weeks now. I ordered a knee brace and wear it during the day. It helps a lot because it's supporting my knee. I have the brace with the double aluminium alloy hinged system. It works great for me and my knee is feeling better . I had difficulties walking but after wearing this brace for 1 week it feels significantly better! When I start walking, standing up or going up and down the stairs I feel a little pain but after moving around for a bit I can feel the pain fading away. This tells me it's healing. I thought I just leave a message in the hope that it's useful for someone out there. Thnx for this very informative video!

[alfredalfredo]

Great that u tube is available don’t need to see the dr❤️❤️❤️brilliant thank you

[frostyshark]

How do determine the severity of an injury? Strain vs tear etc?

[garygibson]

Very helpful and informative. I like to know what to ask my doctors to look for when I visit. I think my left knee has been a problem for a while but now is getting worse. I’ll be scheduling an appointment to get it checked out. At 71, I can’t afford to be falling. ✌️👍

[rdaugherty]

My knee is hurting so bad just looking at this makes me quizzy .

[Sbm]

So informative Doc.. you explain so clearly that we gain a lot of knowledge, we definitely benefit a lot from each of your videos.. keep at it.. God bless

[minimarsed]

thank you for the video!! didn't really experience any knee pain until i did the standing up rotations with the deeper squat. if anything it brought me peace of mind!! i've been driving myself insane.

about a month ago, i went on a long run in the mountains (i was on vacation and thought might as well run to sightsee) - steep terrain is not usual for me, the most i do at home is climb 1 floor up the stairs so i'm not surprised that i got injured, and since then the pain has kind of eased up but still feels tender and sharp when i put weight on it or try to do anything more than walk for 10 minutes (and sometimes even less...), feels like my tendons are snapping into place to support any of the movement in my right leg... for now, my bet is on bursitis and jumper's knee 🤷‍♀️ luckily i'm getting a scan soon but at least it brings me peace of mind knowing i *probably* don't have a meniscus tear, or at the very least not a big one and will be back moving soon.