The cause may not be the knee at all.
Yes, you read it right, most of the time cause could not be the knee by itself.
Knee pain is a common joint-related dysfunction in the lower limb that we see in our practice at Theramax Rehab Centre. Chances are, you yourself might have had knee pain or know someone with knee pain. The intent of this read is to familiarize the reader with the fact that having knee pain does not necessarily mean that you have bad knees.
Knee pain/dysfunction can be categorized based on the cause of pain:
1. Traumatic Knee Injuries
2. Non-Traumatic Injuries.
Traumatic Injuries:
As the name suggests, these are injuries that are caused due to direct or indirect trauma. Twisting the knee when playing, direct impact, etc. These types of injuries have a definite causative factor and in these cases, the knee is the focus of attention. These include collateral ligament injuries, meniscal injuries, or ACL, PCL injuries.
Non-Traumatic Injuries:
You can also get knee pain without any real causative factors. These types of patients usually say “ nothing in my routine has changed in years, I don’t understand why I am having this knee pain suddenly” or say “ I am fairly active, I go to the gym, squat with weights, etc. I didn’t hurt my knee lifting, I don’t know why my knee hurts since morning”.
It is the non-traumatic knee injury that I wanted to discuss today.
We need to realize is that the knee is a part of a kinetic chain. In simple terms, the hip, knee, and ankle joints are connected and are dependent on each other to move right. When we walk, sit, jump, climb stairs, and so on, the knee is not completely responsible for these activities. The knee must move in sync with the ankle, hip, and spine. Any restrictions in the ankle, knee, hip, or lower back can cause minute changes in the whole kinetic chain and present clinically as pain in another joint in the same kinetic chain or sometimes even on the opposite leg! This means the pain you have on the inside of the knee may be because you have a tight hip joint or weak hip muscles or poor ankle range of motion in the same leg or the opposite leg.
Hence, it is very important for your therapist, try to find the real cause for the complaints by doing a thorough assessment of various joints, your Flexibility and Posture evaluation, Ergonomics, and Functional evaluation. This will help them to devise a plan to address the issues. This might include some strengthening, stretching, learning of different forms of exercises, posture correction, etc. You might also be benefitted from a Chiropractic treatment to align your back, a Massage therapist and Acupuncture therapist to help relax tight muscle groups, and a Foot specialist like a Chiropodist to help with any foot-related problems. If this article is useful and if feel you need to seek guidance, please see a therapist now and get back to your life faster, and if you have any questions, feel free to comment or Contact us. Thank you!
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