Q: I am a 30 years old man who has developed some difficulty in walking. My knee joint makes a sound and the joint gets locked immediately but after some time it becomes normal. This has happed thrice in the last two months. I got MRI of my knee and it showed bucket handle tear of the medial meniscus, chronic high grade partial to almost complete tear involving the proximal/mid fibres of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) with horizontally placed and retracted distal fibres. Is surgery necessary to treat this?

A:From your description, assuming you are right, you would need surgical intervention. I am saying this because a bucket handle tear of the meniscus can further damage your knee joint. It can cause what is known as locking of the knee and your knee function will deteriorate. In addition, you have mentioned about anterior cruciate ligament injury. This can cause significant problem in an individual who is physically active and doing lot of running around. There are very clear indications for doing surgery for this. So, you will need to get in touch with an orthopaedic surgeon and plan out further course. Both the problems may need surgical intervention or alternately you could do the meniscus surgery first and depending on the knee findings and return to function plan for reconstruction of the cruciate ligament.