ABOUT
Knee Pain
First and foremost, we need to understand that knee pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal conditions. It’s common because the knee joint is particularly vulnerable to damage. However, the function is in taking full body weight and force when running or jumping.
However, when a knee becomes injured or diseased, the patient can experience severe pain. Unfortunately, it’s common for this to limit mobility. Knee pain can originate from any of the bones compromising the knee joint (femur, tibia, and fibula), the kneecap (patella), or the meniscus (ligaments and cartilage of the knee).
When determining the cause of knee pain, it is usually comprised of three types, such as:
- Injury: a broken bone or fracture, torn ligament, or meniscus tear.
- Medical Conditions: arthritis or infections.
- Overuse: osteoarthritis, patellar syndromes, tendinitis, and bursitis.
Symptoms
When pain arises (especially in the joints,) the first step is to rest unless you know what the pain is a result of. However, sometimes your knee may not respond to inactivity, and therefore it’s recommended to visit a doctor. Signs or symptoms are indicators that you need a doctor evaluation, such as:
- Swelling
- Deformity
- Pain
- Stiffness
- Inability to bend
- Unable to walk (or discomfort)
It’s good to know that even light injuries can lead to extreme complications if not treated or healed correctly.
Diagnosing
In order to diagnose the sacroiliac joint as the pain generator, your physician will typically start with a history and a physical examination. During the physical examination, your physician may try to determine if the sacroiliac joint is the cause of pain through movement of the joint. If this joint movement recreates the pain, the SI joint may be the cause of the pain.
Your physician may also use X-rays, CT-scan or MRI to help diagnose the sacroiliac joint. It is also important to remember that more than one condition (like a disc problem) can co-exist with sacroiliac joint disorders. This means that even if the sacroiliac problem is addressed, pain may still be present in the area. Your doctor should discuss this with you.
Finally, your physician may request sacroiliac joint injections as a diagnostic test. Sacroiliac joint injections involve injecting a numbing medication into the sacroiliac joint. If the injection temporarily alleviates your symptoms, then your sacroiliac joint may be the likely source of your pain.
These injections are not done in the office but are done in a fluoroscopic suite. The response to the injection may last for hours, days, or weeks and depends on the disease process. What is looked for is a temporary resolution of your pain complaint that brought you to the doctor. This temporary resolution has to be dramatic at 70% pain relief or more.
Treatments
The type of treatment determined by your orthopedic specialist will depend upon the severity and cause of your pain. When visiting our office to treat your knee pain, the first approach is always a non-invasive option. Your knee specialist may prescribe medications to help with the inflammation and pain in the case of conditions such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis.
Physical therapy may also be recommended to strengthen the muscles around the knee joint. Therefore, focusing on the quadriceps and/or hamstrings as well as a routine to improve balance. Your doctor may also recommend knee injections that go directly into the knee joint. The medications injected usually contain corticosteroids (a potent anti-inflammatory), hyaluronic acid (to lubricate the knee joint and to improve overall mobility.) And/or platelet-rich-plasma or PRP (contains different growth factors that help to reduce inflammation and to promote natural healing.)
If moderate treatment doesn’t yield results and/or the condition or knee injury is too severe, you may require knee surgery. Regarding knee surgery, the options available nowadays vary from minimally invasive knee surgery to a total surgical joint reconstruction. Among the knee surgical options, the most common is knee arthroscopy, partial knee replacement, total knee joint replacement.
