Knee pain is one of the most prominent pains that a person can suffer from in his life for a variety of reasons, including work conditions or may be caused by various injuries.
Doctor Raafat Dahir, an orthopedic specialist in Istanbul, provides, through Anatolia, a set of tips and definitions related to knee pain symptoms and ways to treat them.
And while he divided the types of knee pain according to age, he warned against ignoring treatment because this leads to exacerbation of pain and the complexity and difficulty of treatment with time.
At the outset of his speech, Duhair said, “The knee joint consists of the meeting of the thigh and shin bones, as the knee joint helps a person while walking, sitting, and moving.”
He added, “Pain in the knee joint leads to difficulty in movement, disturbs the patient, and is caused either by the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, or the internal and external meniscus cartilages, or The cartilage covering the tibia and femur, the inner and outer collateral ligaments, or the synovial fluid in the knee.
Cruciate ligament injuries
With regard to cruciate ligament injuries, Duhair said, “In most cases, they are caused by a sudden movement when the foot is firmly on the ground with a twist in the knee.”
And he added, “The patient has rapid swelling in the knee joint with the inability to walk or bend the knee, and after a period of time after the injury, symptoms of anterior-posterior instability in the knee joint occur when climbing stairs or when walking.”
Regarding the method of treatment, Duhair said, “The diagnosis is made by clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging. As for the treatment of these cases, it is through endoscopic restoration of the cruciate ligament, using tendons around the knee joint.”
He emphasized that “after rehabilitation and physical therapy, most cases can return to normal life.”
Meniscus rupture
As for the tearing of the meniscal cartilages, Duhair said, “The injury to the meniscal cartilages is divided according to age. At a young age, the tearing is the result of an injury or a sprain in the knee joint that leads to a tearing of the meniscus only, or it is associated with an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament.”
He continued, “The patient complains of pain while walking, sitting, and when bending the knee joint, and after the clinical examination and magnetic resonance imaging, the patient needs to undergo endoscopic surgery.”
He continued, speaking about the methods of treatment, by saying, “In people under 40-45 years old, it is possible to repair the torn meniscus without removing any part of it by laparoscopy, and this is done through a number of stitches used according to the location and size of the cartilage tear.”
According to Duhair, “The patient needs to use a knee brace and gradually bend it after the operation, and to perform physiotherapy for the cartilage that leads to healing of the existing rupture.”
And he indicated that the meniscus rupture in the elderly is “a result of wear and tear with time, and the treatment is by removing part of it by means of an endoscope.”
And the doctor warned against “non-surgical intervention in the event of a complete rupture, as this leads to continuous symptoms in the knee joint in the short term, and in the long term, the presence of rupture and non-surgical intervention leads to friction of the ruptured cartilage with the knee cartilage and leads to early roughness in the knee joint.”
Cartilages of the tibia and femur
The doctor talked about the cartilage that covers the shin bone and thigh bone in the joint, saying that it “covers the femur and shin bone and helps to smooth the movement of the joint, and its erosion begins with the advancing age of a person.”
He explained that “the age factor, in addition to genetic factors, weight and lifestyle, all contribute to an increase in the rate of erosion in the cartilage, and there are 4 degrees that determine the extent of erosion in the cartilage:
- The first and second stages are simple pains when walking with pain in the inner side of the joint, and the treatment is through drugs and exercises to strengthen the thigh muscles, and in some cases the patient can be given collagen drugs or injected into the knee with plasma that is separated from the patient’s own blood.
- In the advanced stages of roughness and the fourth degree of it, surgical intervention is resorted to by changing an artificial knee joint, and after the operation, the patient can walk without pain.
The lateral ligaments of the knee
As for the lateral ligaments of the knee, Duhair says, “They help stabilize the lateral knee while walking, and in most cases the injuries result from sports with side bruises during it.”
He said, “The treatment of these cases is through a knee brace that is placed from 4 to 7 weeks.”
He concluded by saying that few of these cases resort to surgical intervention, which is in cases of severe injury to the collateral ligaments, with an accompanying injury to the meniscus or to the cruciate ligament.