By Staff Writer - February, 9th 2014

Knee arthroscopy is a technique used to diagnose and treat problems in the knee joint. During the procedure, your surgeon will make a very small incision and insert a tiny camera—called an arthroscope—into your knee. This allows him or her to view the inside of the joint on a screen. The surgeon can then investigate a problem with the knee and, if necessary, correct the issue using small instruments within the arthroscope.

By Dr. Mercola

Arthroscopic knee surgery is one of the most common unnecessary surgeries performed today—along with back and hip surgeries, pacemakers, cardiac angioplasties, hysterectomies, and Cesarean sections. Several studies over the past decade have highlighted questions about arthroscopic knee surgery, and now, you can add one more to the pile. The meniscus inside your knee is a thin crescent-shaped disc of cartilage that serves as a cushion between your femur and tibia and helps stabilize your knees. Over time, your meniscus can develop tears, especially if you have arthritis. The standard orthopedic surgeon's intervention for meniscal tears is performing an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy—trimming the torn meniscus and smoothing the jagged edges of what remains, which assumes the tear is what's causing your pain. However, that may be a faulty assumption.

Knee Surgery No Better Than Sham

This latest study, conducted in Finland, examined 146 patients with degenerative meniscal tears (caused by “wear …

Knee arthroscopy is a minimally invasive procedure that is a reliable way to diagnose and correct knee problems. The primary benefit is that you can have a pain-free life with full knee mobility after getting the procedure. There are also risks specific to a knee arthroscopy, such as, bleeding inside the knee joint, formation of a blood clot in the leg, infection inside the joint, stiffness in the knee and injury or damage to the cartilage, ligaments, meniscus, blood vessels, or nerves of the knee.

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