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Research Paper: Epidemiology Meniscus Tear

Background

The meniscal tear is the most common knee injury. A meniscal tear tends to be more frequent in sports that have rough contact or pivoting sports such as soccer. The meniscal tear is more common in males than females. The ratio is about two and a half males to one female ( ). Many believe that this is the case because men play more harsh sports compared to women and seem to exert more force and strain on their knees. Males between the ages of thirty one and forty tend to tear their meniscus more frequently than younger men. Females on the other hand, seem to be more likely to tear their meniscus between the ages of eleven and twenty ( ).

Meniscus Tear

There are different ways to tear the meniscus, but there are two main ways that people tend to tear it more often. The first one is the major trauma to the knee from activities such as sports. The other type is the degeneration of the knee joint ( ). People who work in straining jobs such as construction or pro athletes are also more likely to have a meniscal tear because of all the different tensions of their knees. According to the United States National Library of Medicine, the isolated medial meniscal tear occurs more frequently than any other tear associated with the meniscus. The prevalence of meniscus tears is the same for both knees. Neither the right nor left knee is more frequently torn than the other.

BMI

       In a few different studies the BMI of a person can have a greater effect on the frequency of a meniscus tear because having a higher BMI will result in more weight on the joints which can cause the knee to be non-aligned which causes more weight on the muscles resulting in an easier tear (

).