Richard, I have had the medial miniscus removed from both of my knees. Had the right one removed about 16 years ago followed by the left one two years later. Each removal was proceeded by a repair that lasted about a year. The repair required a long incision on the inside of the leg and the removal required three small holes in the knee area. There are some other options to knee replacement before you go that route. They now have a synthetic replacemant material that wasn't available 14 years ago. My knee started to ache last fall and I went to see the Doc. X-rays showed some arthritis starting in the knee joint but that was at 50 y.o.a. and 14 years after removal. Now after all this time I had a cortizone shot in one knee joint last year and that helped a lot. I take the glucosamine tablets daily now and that also helps.