Know Your Knees
Breaking Myths About Knee Pain
So often with knee injuries, people look to the Internet for advice, and if they get the wrong information, they end up waiting for months to see a surgeon when they may not require surgery, or they wait for an MRI when a clinical exam would do.
The Sport Medicine Centre held it's first public lecture to debunk myths about treating knee pain and injury. The goal is to assist people to make the best decision possible so they can return to work and sport, and have a better quality of life without unnecessary delays.
Particularly after a traumatic knee injury, an individual might spend months waiting for an MRI, when the injury might be diagnosed by a sport medicine doctor within days of the mishap.
Knowledge of the anatomy of the knee, and the different options for medical, surgical, and physiotherapy treatment, can help patients receive proper care more quickly.
Knee Anatomy
The knee is the largest synovial joint in the body. It is a hinged joint - meaning it allows mainly flexion (bending) and extension (straightening). The knee joint is composed of the articulation between the following bones: the femur, patella and tibia.
There are muscles at the front and back of the knee: quadriceps (thigh muscles) at the front help straighten the knee, and hamstrings at the back help bend the knee. Other, less familiar muscles that assist knee function are the iliotibial band and the pes anserine. These muscles run along the outside and inside of the knee and assist with stability.
Ligaments, cartilage, menisci make up the rest of the knee.
For more information on knee anatomy, please follow the link below:
Medical Response to Knee Injury
Between 50,000 and 100,000 Albertans sustain knee injuries every year and roughly 60 per cent of these individuals can fully recover with non-surgical treatment. Traumatic knee injury can be diagnosed with an initial physical examination by a medical professional. Imaging can be almost always be accomplished with a simple x-ray.
At the Sport Medicine Centre, the Acute Knee Injury Clinic (AKIC) can provide such an examination within a few days of the initial injury. The AKIC diagnosis team is made up of a sport medicine physician and a specialized Non-Physician Expert (NPE).
Once the history of the patient has been confirmed, the NPE performs an initial physical exam, which includes a discussion of a diagnosis, a review of any imaging done to date, and management plan. At this point, the sport medicine physician will join the patient and review and confirm the NPE diagnosis. Appropriate imaging - usually an x-ray - is ordered, and appropriate referrals prescribed. This may be for bracing, physical rehabilitation, or in more extreme cases, surgery.
As nearly two-thirds of all knee injuries do not require surgery, rapid diagnosis will allow the patient to start the road to recovery immediately.
Surgical Response to Knee Injury
For those patients whose injury requires surgery, the first step is a referral from your family physician or from a specialty clinic such as the Acute Knee Injury Clinic. At the first surgical appointment, the surgeon will review the diagnosis and imaging from the referring physician and determine what repairs are required.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are an issue often related to sports. If they occur in younger athletes is is crucial to have the injury dealt with as soon as possible, to avoid the athlete "playing through the pain". There are different techniques used in ACL surgery, but many can be accomplished using arthroscopy, a minimally invasive procedure.
More complicated problems will require open surgery. Non-chronic issues, such as osteoarthritis can also require more involved surgical techniques, such as total knee replacement.
