Knee ligament tears

What does "High signal within the posterior horn of the medial and lateral menisci suggesting small tears" mean in lamens terms?  Does this sort of knee injury usually wind up with orthoscopic surgery, normal surgery, or does it usually heal on its own?

[sanjayscindia]

MRI of left knee
Clinical history: ?anterior cruciate ligament tear ,? Posterior horn of medical meniscus tear
Scan Protocol:
Sagittal: T2 GRE, PD FATSAT
Coronal: T1 FSE, FSEIR
Axial: PD FATSAT

Report:
Hyperintense signal in seen in both tibal condyles on FSEIR images appearing hypointense on T1W images suggestive of bone bruise/contusion.
A moderate sized intra articular effusion is seen in the knee joint mainly in the supra and retro patellar synovial compartments. This looks hypointense on T1W images and hyperintense on T2W images.
Anterior cruciate ligament is not visualized suggestive of full thickness tear. Posterior cruciate ligament appears normal.
Hyperintense signal is seen in posterior horn of medial meniscus on GRE images suggestive of myxoid degeneration. Lateral meniscus appears normal.
Abnormal hyperintense signal is seen superficial to medial collateral ligament suggestive of grade I sprain. Lateral collateral ligament appears normal.
Impression:
Bone bruise/ contusion  on both tibal condyles.
Full thickness tear of anterior cruciate ligament.
Grade I sprain of medial collateral ligament.
Myxoid degeneration of posterior horn medial meniscus.
Moderate intra articular effusion.
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This is the report, of my knee.
The doctors here in india say i need operation.
Are there any new ways to repair my hurt?
Please help me.
I heard about the new procedure of inserting some gel in it?
I hav no pain in my knee, so why whould i go for the operation?
waiting for your reply.
I m not in sports.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

First of all, I would like you to see these two representative figures of the medial and the lateral menisci. The second figure shows the kind of tears you have.

http://www.leadingmd.com/patientEd/assets/3_4_view.gif

In this figure, if you can see the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), it is the most important ligaments of the joint. A tear in the ACL or a lax ACL leads to small tears in the posterior horns of the menisci. Do you have any previous knee injuries, especially the cruciate ligament tears?

http://www.easyfizzy.co.il/image/users/46789/ftp/my_files/meniscal.gif

This figure shows types of a tear in the meniscus. If there was no previous injury, yur small tears in the menisci could be degenerative.

Here's some information on diagnosing the grade of severity of the tear -

"A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is often used to diagnose meniscal injuries. The meniscus shows up as black on the MRI. Any tears appear as white lines. An MRI is 70 to 90% accurate in identifying whether the meniscus has been torn and how badly. However, meniscus tears do not always appear on MRIs.

Meniscus tears, indicated by MRI, are classified in three grades. Grades 1 and 2 are not considered serious. They may not even be apparent with an arthroscopic examination. Grade 3 is a true meniscus tear and an arthroscope is close to 100% accurate in diagnosing this tear."

Regards