Knee Cartilage Shaving: New Study Questions Benefit, Warns of Harm
A 10-year randomized study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that arthroscopic shaving of degenerative meniscal tears provides little to no benefit compared with sham surgery or physical therapy and may worsen pain and accelerate osteoarthritis, sometimes leading to more surgery such as knee replacement; the findings echo decades of evidence against routine knee arthroscopy and have helped reduce the procedure in many countries, though treatment varies and acute injuries may still warrant different care.
