A knee joint is an important part of human body and is used in supporting weight and mobilizing ourselves. It is a complex joint consisting of bones, ligaments and also two menisci present in each of the knee. One meniscus is C shaped and the other is O shaped. The position of these menisci is that they are present in between femur and tibia and the purpose of this meniscus is to provide flexibility to the whole joint. These menisci are also supplied with blood vessels.

With undue pressure, these menisci get injured and tear off from the bones causing immense pain and inflammation. Anterior horn lateral meniscus tear refers to an injury of the C shaped lateral meniscus, specifically in its anterior horn. Since the meniscus acts as shock absorber and protects the cartilages of the knee joint, it plays a major role in keeping the knee intact. They actually bear almost 40 percent of the total weight applied on the knee. Since these are soft and also support so much of body weight, a strong tension between the bones can easily tear them off from their original position.

Medial meniscus tear is more commonly found that anterior horn lateral meniscus tear. Any kind of injury is more common in the athletes. In young people, meniscus tear takes shorter time to heal while in older people, it becomes difficult to achieve complete healing even with time. The menisci themselves become weak with age in older people, with lesser blood vessels being connected to them, thereby causing delayed and sometimes incomplete healing.

The symptoms of anterior horn lateral tear are typical. First of all there is excessive pain and swelling in the injured knee. Along with localized swelling there is increased temperature of the knee itself with redness and extreme tightness. There will be obvious tenderness upon touching and feeling it. There also might be a clicking sound while trying to bend the knee and a feeling that the knee is about to collapse.

The treatments start with scanning and X rays to determine the exact damage. Once the rupture is determined then actual treatment starts. Sometimes the extent of injury can not be measured using X rays, in that case MRI is also used. In addition to that, in some cases, MRI is also not successful in which scenario a procedure called arthroscopy is required to be used. There are also various tests like Mc Murray test, Steinmann test, Apley test etc which are used to determine the extent of damage in the knee by practicing rotational motions or by using other type of motion related test. Physiotherapy is the most common method used to treat this, however this procedure takes a long time. In case physiotherapy is not doing well, then surgery is the last option left for any patient.