How long does it take for cartilage to heal?
Flexi Says:
There are four types of knee injuries, muscle-tendon, medial collateral ligament (MCL), anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and meniscus tears injuries. In muscle-tendon injury, the patellar tendon gets damaged, and there will be difficult to straighten the knee, which might require surgery as a treatment if the damage is severe. Depending upon the severity of the damage, it might take a few weeks to months for the recovery. In the case of MCL injury, there will be slight swelling with some pain and difficulty walking. Rest, ice, compression, and elevation are generally needed to recover from the mild MCL injury and surgery for severe MCL injury. It takes around one to two weeks to recover from a mild MCL injury while months to recover from severe damage. There will be immediate swelling and difficulty in walking in the ACL injury. Surgery and physical therapy are the treatments for such injuries. It generally takes months to recover from such an injury. In meniscus tears, the knee's cartilage is acutely damaged, leading to pain and swelling gradually over a few hours of the injury. Depending upon the extent of damage observed from the reports of MRI, a doctor can prescribe whether the injury can be recovered through physical therapy or requires surgery. It takes approximately 3 to 6 months to recover from such an injury.