There are some issues that can have a large impact on your life, and knee pain is a perfect example of this. Dealing with achy and painful knees is challenging enough, but the loss of pain-free mobility can be equally as difficult.
Unfortunately, knee pain is all too common — most everyone experiences the issue at some point in their life. When the issue crosses over into a chronic one that lasts for months or years, finding answers becomes a priority.
This blog is a great place to start. This month, our team of board-certified orthopedic surgeons at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine outlines four of the more common culprits behind nagging knee pain and what steps to take next.
By far, the leading driver of achy and painful knees is knee osteoarthritis (OA), which affects 365 million people across the globe, and this number is growing.
With knee OA, the protective cartilage inside the joint breaks down due to wear and tear, allowing the bones inside the joint to come into contact. And when bones rub against each other unprotected, pain and inflammation soon follow.
Unfortunately, knee OA is degenerative, which means the problem doesn’t get better and often gets worse. Getting help at the first signs of knee OA — which is usually soreness and stiffness after activity — is a great idea because our team can come up with an action plan for OA in your knees.
Each of your knees contains four main ligaments:
Chronic knee pain can often stem from damage to one of these ligaments that can occur on the heels of an acute injury or develop over time. Of these ligaments, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the one that’s injured the most often, fueling the 400,000 ACL reconstructions that orthopedic surgeons in the United States perform each year.
With ligament damage, you can experience knee pain, as well as a sensation that your knee is going to give out — it feels unstable.
While some ligament tears heal on their own, full ruptures often require surgical repair, so it’s important to have our team evaluate your knee as early as possible.
Your knees contain wedge-shaped pieces of cartilage called menisci, and you have two in each knee. Tears in these tissues are common — either as a result of an acute injury or due to overstressing the tissues.
With an acute meniscus tear, you might hear or feel a popping sound or sensation, followed by knee pain and, eventually, swelling, stiffness, and tenderness. With an overuse tear, you gradually develop symptoms that include pain, swelling, and stiffness.
Whether acute or due to overuse, another characteristic of a meniscus tear is instability in the knee.
Like ligament issues, we need to thoroughly evaluate the soft tissue using advanced imaging to determine how to approach healing, which can range from physical therapy to surgical repair.
We already discussed meniscus and ligament tears, two very common sports injuries. Given how involved your knees can be when it comes to exercise, it should come as no surprise that they aren’t the only ways you can injure your knee when you're active.
For example, 19%-30% of female runners and 13%-25% of male runners develop patellofemoral pain syndrome, or runner's knee, at some point. In addition, sprains or other injuries are common in knees among athletes.
When it comes to sports injuries of these kinds, our team is well-versed in helping athletes get back into the game using the most advanced treatments available.
As with the other causes of knee pain, the first step toward relief and recovery is to see us for an evaluation, which will lay the groundwork for helping you to move forward with healthier knees.
To get that ball rolling, please contact New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine in New Braunfels, Texas, today. Call the office at 830-341-1386 or use our online form to request an appointment.
