Why Do I Have Knee Ache, Pain and Stiffness?
Many people suffer from knee aches, pain and stiffness.
While there are sometimes dangerous reasons such as an infection, tumors, and fractures, most causes are mechanical.
While mechanical causes of knee pain such as sprains, degenerative knee osteoarthritis (wear and tear), meniscus and ligament injuries are usually not dangerous, they can cause significant distress, making it hard to walk, causing time off work, affect a person’s social interactions and result in poor mood.
What Should I Do?
It is always a good idea to consult a doctor when you have a medical condition.
Where the pain is severe, or when there is an obvious emergency such as an accident causing a potential fracture, it is important to consult a doctor urgently.
Other situations where it is important to consult a doctor urgently include when there are “red flags” such as a fever, loss of weight, generally feeling ill and experiencing pain that wakes you up from sleep.
In long standing conditions which have been properly assessed by your doctor to not be dangerous or in mild cases of knee sprain, rest and self-help measures can be useful.
Do I Need To Do an X-ray or MRI?
Many mild cases can usually be well managed by an experienced doctor who can provide a clinical diagnosis based on a patients clinical history and physical examination.In cases where the initial treatments have not been effective, an X-ray would be a cost effective way to rule out most dangerous underlying problems.
In selected cases, an MRI might also be appropriate to provide a precise diagnosis.
How Can Knee Pain Be Treated?
For many patients, their doctors will likely prescribe rest and medications for a short period of time. Long term medications are less likely to be curative and risk potential side effects.
Physiotherapy when properly applied is another well accepted option.
Using techniques such as manual therapy, medical massage, ultrasound, stretches and exercises, it can have a good result in many cases.
Joint injection with viscosupplementation are sometimes used as a “lubricant” to the joint.
However recent medical opinion indicate that the benefit of viscosupplementation on pain and function in patients is minimal.
However, years of clinical experience have also now shown them to be of very limited benefit.
Why Are My Treatments Not Working?
When the previous treatments are not successful, we often find a few common factors:- The previous diagnosis was not precise. Imaging scans and clinical experience can often be very helpful in these cases.
- Treatment was prescribed which took into account only one aspect of the condition. e.g., treating only the inflammatory component of degenerative knee arthritis using painkillers without addressing the underlying wear and tear.
- Limited available options available. Patients were only offered painkillers and glucosamine instead of newer medical solutions.
- Patients were offered impractical treatment plans which they could not accept. Common examples include being offered expensive and frequent treatments for extended periods.
Is Surgery Necessary
In occasions such as a fracture and an unstable knee joint, surgery is a necessary option.In most other cases, even where pain and stiffness are severe or have been present for a long time, there are multiple non-surgical options that a patient should first consider.
As surgery can have significant risks and cost, it is important to balance this carefully against the potential benefits expected.
I Had Surgery And It Did Not Work. Why?
In rare cases, patients may continue to suffer from symptoms of pain and stiffness after surgery.This can be a source of significant frustration especially when you expected surgery to be a dramatic “last hope”.
It can also be confusing when you are told “the scans are okay” or “the surgery was successful” but do not feel better.
This can be a complex condition and there are many possible reasons.
In some instances, the body has not had enough time to fully recover and symptoms will improve with rest.
At times, there could be some technical aspects of surgery that should best be discussed with your surgeon.
There are also cases where a patient’s original symptoms are caused by multiple factors such as inflammation, joint dysfunction, degeneration, and muscular trigger points.
Surgery may correct one specific cause of the patient’s symptoms but not be able to address the other causes.
In such instances, a comprehensive post-surgery treatment plan is likely needed.
Can I Use Medisave And Medical Insurance To Pay For Treatments?
As our treatments are very affordable and cost-effective, many patients choose to self pay.
For those with insurance coverage, we are happy to help support medical claims.
Medisave is another very popular option to help pay for medical treatments.
What New Treatment Options Can The Pain Relief Clinic Offer For My Knee Pain?
At this Clinic, we adopt a biomedical targeted approach that addresses how the multiple component causes of knee pain affect you.
This allows us to provide treatment strategy that targets the root causes of your condition using medical technology in a comprehensive and cost-effective way.
Depending on your specific condition, some of the useful options that can give very good results include:
- Dietary Correction
- Nanotechlogy
- Non-Invasive Shockwave which stimulates deep tissue healing very cost effectively
- Indiba Therapy which gives rapid and long lasting recovery
- Rehabilitative Electromedical Stimulation
- Regenerative Medicine such as Platelet Rich Plasma Injections
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