My wife had surgery for a torn meniscus almost a year ago. She still can't kneel but the doc says she'll heal fully in time. She's diabetic and that makes healing a lot slower.
He sewed the 2 broken ends together. The sutures weren't strong enough so he tied the torn ends together, drilled a hole all the way through the one and ran the line through it, pulling the sewn ends down into the hole. Then he tied it off to a button on the far side of the bone. That's there permanently although it's no longer needed. He said he can remove the button if it bothers her but you can't see it and she can't feel it so there's no need.
This procedure takes a lot longer to heal than a knee replacement but it's a better fix. He said that when he does these, he often has an artificial knee on hand ready to go in in case it's necessary. The x-rays and MRI's don't show everything and he often finds things in there that he couldn't see. Having a knee joint ready to install if it's bad enough saves the necessity of another surgery.
