"A knee is just a joint" is like saying a "Corvette is just a car". And just like a car, there's many different flavors of joints. The knee in particular has a very unique anatomy.
The two tibial contact points (medial and lateral) of the knee provide a gliding surface to articulate its bending and straightening capabilities. Although similar, thee two sides aren't exactly the same. One major difference, in particular, sheds a lot of light onto my injury.
The lower gliding surface of the knee is the tibial plateau, in which there's a left and right side (medial and lateral) that work in conjunction with the femoral aspect. I learned today that the medial side is concave in form, whereas the lateral side is convex. The convex nature of the lateral side focuses pressure on the articular area of the knee. This pressure is dissipated by the lateral meniscus, which acts as a cushion for impact.
The two tibial contact points (medial and lateral) of the knee provide a gliding surface to articulate its bending and straightening capabilities. Although similar, thee two sides aren't exactly the same. One major difference, in particular, sheds a lot of light onto my injury.
The lower gliding surface of the knee is the tibial plateau, in which there's a left and right side (medial and lateral) that work in conjunction with the femoral aspect. I learned today that the medial side is concave in form, whereas the lateral side is convex. The convex nature of the lateral side focuses pressure on the articular area of the knee. This pressure is dissipated by the lateral meniscus, which acts as a cushion for impact.
What this means is that someone without a lateral meniscus (like myself) is subject to more focal contact pressures on that side of the knee. This translates into a higher susceptibility for articular cartilage (the hard cartilage that encompasses bone) damage, which is possibly what happened on the basketball court. An MRI will certainly determine whether this happened, but for now I'm only left to speculate.