Sports injuries are a common occurs. Even the most cautious athletes are hurt on occasion.
In this article I’ll discuss different types of knee injuries and what you should do when they occur.
How the Knee Works
There are four bones that make up the knee they are the fibula, tibia, femur, and patella. The fibula the outer bone.The tibia, is the shin bone. The patella is your kneecap. The femur is your thigh bone.
The femur sits on top of the shin bone with cartilage in-between the two bones, this protects them from rubbing against each other.
At the other end of the bones lies a hyaline cartilage. It protects the ends and helps with mobility.
The kneecap sits in what’s known as the intercondylar groove, this is a small indention in the bottom of the femur. This grove gives the patella the ability to move up and down
The knee has four different ligaments. These ligaments prevent incorrect movement of the knee. The lateral ligament connects the femur and the fibula.
The medial ligament is on the inside middle part of the knee. It connects the tibia and the femur.
The medial ligaments have two types of cartilage that attached to the inside part of the knee. The last two are the cruciate ligaments. They cross each other in the middle of the knee.
The Joint capsule is a membrane that protects the entire knee. It’s surrounded by ligaments, this gives its endurance.
It houses synovial membrane, which supplies fluid to the knee joint. The joint capsule also contains fat pads and bursa this is the knee’s protection.
There are two muscles that connect to the knee, they are the hamstring and the quadriceps.
The hamstrings are attached to the top back part of the tibia, it’s responsible for knee bends.
The quadriceps are attached to the top front part of the tibia. These muscles work together to stabilize the knee.
What Causes My Painful Knees?
There are four classifications of knee injuries they are acute, anterior, posterior and medial. I will explain a little about each below.
Acute knee injury usually takes place after improper twisting, injury or sudden impact.
A person will have instant pain and possible swelling. This swelling might continue over the next 48 hours.
Doctors usually recommend Rice treatment. This’s rest, ice, compression and elevation.
Anterior knee pain occurs in the front of the knee at the patella. The pain will be gradual but will become extremely painful over time. The usual cases for this are a patellofemoral pain.
This occurs when the kneecap continually rubs against the femur. Other cause for this type of pain includes patella tendonitis and Osgood Schlatter’s disease.
Medial knee pain, pain in the knee itself. The pain is gradual.
Generally, it’s from working the knee too hard, or injuries that haven’t completely healed.
Other possibilities include injury to the cartilage and ligaments in the knee. Diseases like arthritis and iliotibial band friction syndrome can cause this pain.
Posterior knee pain is a pain in the back of the knee. It generally occurs from knee injuries healing improperly and overuse. Hamstring tendon inflammation can cause pain in this area.
The Painful Truth about Pellegrini- Stieda Syndrome
Pellegrini- Stieda syndrome is a disorder that affects the medial collateral ligament, the ligament that attaches the shin bone and the thigh bone. This disorder is usually the result of calcification of the ligament.
Why Does It Hurts to Move?
Suffers will have difficulty straightening, moving, bending and twisting the knee. In fact, these actions may be too painful for them to attempt.
The knee itself will be tender and there might be a lump in the knee. There will be inflammation, swelling, and pain in the knee.
Those Darn Sports
This injury’s caused by direct force to the collateral ligament joint by an object. Sometimes it’s caused by being tackled, or suddenly falling down hard on the knee.
Occasionally, this’s caused by stretching the ligament incorrectly. This can occur when the person falls causing inward bending. This’s often seen in gymnastics, football, baseball, similar sports.
Why Do I Hurt, So
The doctor can usually tell according to the symptoms and events that took place before the injury. He will probably take an x-ray to confirm the diagnosis.
Stop the Pain
It’s important to seek medical assistance immediately. If you try to walk, stand to move it you will have excruciating pain, and you can cause further damage to the ligament.
Treatment depends on how the severity. Usually, the doctor will advise you to limit your activity. This will give the ligament time to heal.
He will advise you do light stretches, this will keep it from stiffening up, which will cause additional trouble.
The doctor may ask you to use crutches or other assistive devices temporarily. This will take off some of the pressure on the knee when you move around.
He may insist you see a physical therapist for massage and other treatments. The physical therapist can show you how to do a few light exercises to keep the limb mobile, without worsening the condition.
For Pain and swelling, he might recommend you take an anti-inflammatory medicine.
There are topical creams that you can use to alleviate some of the pain. The doctor might prescribe additional pain medicine in addition to the anti-inflammatory.
If the condition is severe, the doctor may opt to do corticosteroid injections. This will reduce inflammation, pain and the swelling.
Another suggestion might be ice packs every two hours, to reduce the swelling and pain.
As time goes on you need to start to slowly increase your knee movement. Your physical therapist or doctor can advise you on how much activity and how soon you should start.
This will prevent the knee from becoming ridged and it will also help you decrease the recovery time.
Generally, this type of injury is healed within three weeks, with the appropriate treatment
