Knee pain is a common problem that most people experience for different reasons. These can include an injury, or medical conditions such as osteoarthritis and infections. The extremity of pain may range from mild, which improves with self-care measures, to intense discomfort, which can be debilitating and require surgical repair. Most knee pain patients experience swelling, stiffness, limited range of motion, weakness, and instability. The good news is that treatments such as Westfield Botox may help reduce symptoms such as pain and improve your quality of life.
What causes knee pain?
You may experience pain in your knee due to mechanical problems, underlying medical conditions, and injuries.
Injuries
- Fractures. A fracture is a partial or complete break in the discontinuity of your bone. Fractures can occur in any bone, including the knee cap, as a result of different causes including accidents and falls. Fractures are painful injuries and often require immediate medical attention. While anyone can fracture a bone, certain populations such as those with osteoarthritis, are more susceptible to this injury. Osteoarthritis makes your bones brittle, and you can easily obtain a fracture from stepping wrong.
- ACL injury. The anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when a tear in the four ligaments connects between the shinbone and your thigh bone. Frequent use of the knees puts you at risk of an ACL injury. For this reason, an ACL injury is more common in sportspeople.
Medical problems
- Osteoarthritis. It is an age-related condition, and the most common form of arthritis, which involves wear and tear of the cartilage in your bones. The cartilage is the outer coating of your bones and smoothens the bone surfaces at the joints. When the cartilage wears out, bones at the joint rub against each other upon motion, the bones may wear out as a result, and as a response to that, bone spurs may form on the surface.
- Septic Arthritis. It is a painful infection that mostly affects your knees due to germs in your bloodstream. Septic arthritis may also develop due to animal bites or any injury that causes germ penetration to your knee. Immediate medical attention is necessary to avoid extensive damage to your cartilage. Unlike other knee pains, this one is usually accompanied by other symptoms such as fever.
Risk factors for knee pain
While anyone can develop knee pain, your risk for the same is higher due to reasons such as:
- Obesity. Excess body weight exerts extra pressure on your knee joints even when engaging in simple activities such as walking. If you are obese, you are also susceptible to osteoarthritis, which accelerates cartilage degeneration.
- Occupations. Jobs that require much bending or repetitive use of the knee put you at risk of knee pain. Examples of such jobs include farming, building, and construction.
- You have conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis that affect the joints in your body. Rheumatoid arthritis medications suppress the immune system, increasing your likelihood of septic arthritis.
- Previous injury. You are more likely to develop knee pain if you previously fractured your bone or had any other type of injury on your knee area.
If you want to learn more about knee pain treatment, consult with your specialist at Genesis Orthopedic and Spine.
