Knee Treatment Different Options A Preliminary Thought to Prevent and Recover from Painful Injuries

Knee Treatment Different Options There are many different kinds of Knee Treatment.  Depending on what has caused your knee pain or how drastic the injury is, will determine what kind of knee treatment is appropriate.

We like to suggest Knee Exercises as the first and foremost treatment before considering surgery or medication.  Surgery can cause future weakness or injury as a side effect and Medication is generally a form of pain relief rather than an actual fix to the problem.

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However, for the purpose of this article, we will briefly discuss the different options you have in regard to the knee treatments available to you.

1.  Therapy

Therapy, Physical Therapy – Knee Exercises that focus on strengthening and stretching the muscles that support the knee joint; namely the quadriceps and hamstrings.

Orthotics and Bracing – There are different kinds of knee braces that will support the knee joint and lessen the amount of stress and pressure on the weak knee.  There are also arch and heel supports that will help guide the foot and leg into a better form that will lessen the pressure and support the knee joint.

2.  Surgery

Surgery, Arthroscopic Surgery – Through minor incisions, your doctor can use smaller instruments to repair damaged cartilage, ligaments, and tendons, and remove any loose bodies from your knee joint.

Partial Knee Replacement Surgery – Your doctor will replace the most damaged parts of your knee with either plastic or metal replicas.

Full Knee Replacement Surgery – Your doctor will cut away all damaged bones including thigh bone, shin bone, and knee cap, and replace them with artificial parts made of plastic or metal.

3.  Medications
4.  Injections

Corticosteroids – This drug helps with pain relief and the treatment of arthritis.  The injection to the knee cap is usually effective for a couple of months, but in some cases, it is not effective at all and can cause different kinds of infection.

Hyaluronic Acid – This injection usually helps provide pain relief for 6-12 months. ; Hyaluronic Acid could be in healthy joints'. Your doctor will take some from your healthy joints and inject it into your injured ones to provide extra lubrication.

Runners Knee – What is it?

Runners' knee is one of the most common knee injuries.  It is most prominent in runners, hence the name, however, it is a common irritation that is caused by many other exercises causing overuse of the knee.  The more formal name for runner's knee is “patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) but we will continue to address it as runner's knee throughout this article.  42% of all overuse injuries affect the knee joint and twice as many women as men suffer from this injury.  Therefore it is imperative that we take this seriously.

So, what can we do to prevent it; and if we already have it, how do we treat it? Let’s address prevention first: When running, try to avoid running on hard surfaces such as concrete.  I was always told by my runner friends not to run on the sidewalk but rather on the blacktop (or grass if available).  I thought they were just messing around with me, but it turns out that they were right. Anything you can do to limit the amount of stress or compact your knee joint when you are doing a high-impact exercise like running is very helpful, especially if running is your primary source of exercise.  Stretching is also very important.  Here are two great stretches that you should do to prevent suffering from runner's knee:

1Hamstring Stretch – Find something about 24 inches off the ground that you can rest your foot on, such as a chair.  Standing about 2 feet from the chair, put your right foot on the chair with your leg straight and your toes pointed upwards.  Keeping your back straight (not hunched), slowly lean forward towards your right foot until you feel a good stretch in your hamstrings.  Hold this position for 60 seconds and repeat with your other foot.  Do this 3 times a day.

Straight Leg Lifts – lay flat on your back and keep your right leg straight out in front of you.  Take your left leg and bend it at the knee about 45 degrees with your left knee pointing upwards and your left foot flat on the floor.  Slowly raise your right leg as high as you can while keeping your leg straight.  You should get a really good stretch in your hamstrings from this exercise as well.  Do 10 repetitions and repeat with your opposite leg.  You should do this often enough to work up to 10 sets of 10 repetitions without pain.

Now that we have addressed prevention, let’s talk about treatment.

Runner's knee will eventually rid itself over time, however, it is very important that once you experience pain immediately stop doing whatever it is that is causing the pain. You should not return to that particular exercise until you are completely healed or you may suffer permanent damage.

Okay, so once you have established that you have runners knee and you have stopped practicing the painful exercise, you should remember this acronym: R.I.C.E

Rest: Keep as much pressure on your injured knee as possible.

Ice: For 20-30 minutes every 3-4 hours 2-3 times per day until the pain is gone.

Compress: Use an elastic bandage or knee brace to compress the knee for extra support.

Elevate: With a pillow while you are sleeping and/or watching television.

Then practice the stretching exercises listed above and focus on light knee exercises that strengthen your knee joint supporting muscles, which are the hamstrings and quadriceps.

Knee Exercises – A Preliminary Thought to Prevent and Recover from Painful Injuries

If you are trying to prevent knee injuries or are attempting to recover from them, there are many good knee exercises that can help you do just that.

Though knee injuries are very popular amongst athletes and even us common folk, most of the time it can be prevented with proper knee exercises and/or stretching.

It is very important to know how the knee operates in order to properly strengthen it. The knee is made up of bones, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and muscles.

What we need to do is focus on strengthening the muscles as we know that the stronger and more flexible the muscles are surrounding the knee, the less stress there will be on the knee joint, thus resulting in less pain and fewer injuries. So, what are some of the muscles that we can exercise? Well, the legs are made up of the abductors and adductors, calves, hamstrings, and glutes. This grouping categorizes the largest muscle group in the body.

There are specific exercises for each muscle group that we will get to in another article, but the purpose of this article is to make sure you know the reason and importance of the knee exercises that we have chosen to focus on.

Another very important preliminary note is to stress the point of warming up before doing any knee exercises. Further injury can result without a proper warm-up. You should warm up with 5-10 minutes of low-impact activity such as walking or cycling before doing any knee exercises.