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Show Surgery helps correct the pain from torn cartilaqes Torn cartilages (menisci), which act like washers and help knee joints fit together more accurately, can be surgically corrected with relative ease, but a Stanford orthopedic or-thopedic surgeon says some people may not want to bother. "Fixing a torn cartilage in older people with a less athletic type of life is more a lifestyle question than a medical question," said Dr. David Schurman, head of Stanford's Division Divi-sion of Restoration Surgery. For most people, the consequences conse-quences of a torn cartilage are often pain or stiffness, "which may be quite minimal or almost un-noticeable un-noticeable in someone who is not very active," Schurman says. The orthopedic surgeon says that many people can lead full, relatively relative-ly active lives with the torn cartilage car-tilage in place and may not wish to undergo the minimal but still real-risks real-risks and possible inconvenience of surgery. And, says Schurman, leaving leav-ing an uncorrected torn cartilage in place does not contrary to medical opinion of a decade ago appear to increase the risk of arthritis. However, athletes or others young or old who decide to undergo surgery for torn knee cartilages should be able to return to an active life within days and a full athletic regimen within weeks, the orthopedic or-thopedic surgeon said. Schurman explains that the reason for tearing a cartilage varies with age. In persons younger than about age 40, the condition is almost always caused by an athletic injury. In persons older than about 40, the condition is more often caused by normal wear and tear. While old and young people are good candidates for cartilage surgery, Schurman says that older people are somewhat more likely to require followup surgery to maintain main-tain the repair than young people. "And keep in mind," Schurman added, "that a decision not to have surgery doesn't have to be irreversible. irrever-sible. In most cases, people can decide to have the operation later if symptoms persist or get worse." |