Medial meniscus tear- literature regarding ultrasound therapy

[dankowen]

Hey.
I posted this in the Sports Discussion too, I hope that's alright(PhysioBob- you can remove one if not).

I have a new patient who has sustained an injury to the knee due to a football tackle. He has medialmeniscus tear and PCL strain(injury was knee of other player hitting him from the lateral side, i.e valgus force).
I hold the knowledge that Ultrasound(US) therapy for medial meniscal tears is not supported by current literature, but wanted to make sure. I am having difficulty finding any recent(or past, for that matter) articles/reviews that aimed to check if US therapy was beneficial for medial meniscus tears. Can anyone refer me to any such published articles?

Thanks!

Dan

Similar Threads:

• Physical therapy exercises making bruised medial meniscus more painful
• Dreaded Triad - Grade 3 MCL, Grade 3 ACL amd Medial meniscus tear
• Medial Meniscus
• Left Knee ACL tear and medial and lateral retinaculum tear
• Medial meniscus tear- literature regarding ultrasound therapy

[bikelet]

As far as I am aware, from studying a unit on Electrophysical Agents at uni- the evidence for ultrasound (and most electrophysical modalities) is sketchy at best because of the large range of variables involved. The main variables which were is question over is ideal frequency and duration- there has not been enough research controlling these variables (so that studies can be compared or added to existing study results) or enough participants in research conducted to come to strong conclusions.
However there appears to be good anecdotal/clinical use of ultrasound in acute situations such as medial meniscus tears and so it is still used.

---------- Post added at 08:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------

Also I found this article:

ScienceDirect.com - Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation - Efficacy of therapeutic ultrasound treatment of a meniscus tear in a severely disabled patient: a case report