Everything You Wanted To Know About The Knee

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The Knee …

What exactly is the knee? According to the professionals, the knee is one of the largest and complex joints that can be found in the body. Your joint in the knee essentially joins the thigh with the shin bone. The smaller bone that runs along the shin, or tibia, and the kneecap are the other bones that make up this joint. While the knee plays a fundamental role in the movement of the leg, not having change much during our evolution, it is extremely vulnerable to both injury and osteoarthritis.

The Anatomy of the Knee …The knee is essentially a “hinge joint” composed of three functional components. This includes. The patella (kneecap), the patellar groove and the medial and lateral femorotibial. The latter, links the femur to the tibia, which is considered to be the main bone of the lower leg. The knee is an important joint in the body, playing an essential role in the movement and carrying the weight of the body. While the various components of the knee are essential to the movement of the knee, the knee bones are connected to the leg muscles through tendons. The ligaments, or a short and flexible bang of fibrous connective tissue, has the job of joining the knee bones, providing the knee with stability.

Figure 1.1

What do these ligaments and tendons do?

• (It is essential that you take a look at Figure 1.1 to fully understand)• The anterior cruciate ligament is responsible for

preventing the femur from sliding backward onto the tibia, or the tibia forward onto the femur. • The posterior cruciate ligament prevents the femur

from sliding forward onto the tibia, while it also looks to stop the tibia from sliding backward onto the femur. • The medial and lateral collateral ligaments prevents

the femur sliding from side to side. • While the ligaments are all busy doing this hard work,

two pieces of cartilage called the medial and lateral menisci acts as shock absorbers between the all-important femur and tibia.

Injury to the knee • When experiencing pain in the

knee, it is often caused by trauma, misalignment or degeneration; with conditions such as arthritis being prevalent. While a painful knee can often be treated at home with ice and rest, more serious injuries require surgical care. One of the most common knee injury is known as patellofemoral syndrome. While knee pain can occur in young individuals, age is usually a contributing factor to various knee disorders. In older individuals, pain in the knee may arise frequently due to osteoarthritis.

A common condition: Patellogemoral Syndrome …

A syndrome that is commonly associated to the knee, it is a condition that is described as pain or discomfort that has originated from contact of the posterior surface of the patella with the femur. This is a frequently diagnosed condition in sports medicine clinics. How does this pain occur? The pain and dysfunction is often a result of abnormal forces or prolonged repetitive compressive or shearing forces, this is running or jumping for the common folks, on the patellogemoral joint. This often results in thinning and softening of the articular cartilage located under the patella, this is referred to as “bone bruises”. Another cause of this syndrome can be fractures, internal knee derangement, or bony tumours in or around the knee. How do they diagnose it? It is essential that you make your way to a medical professional if you are experiencing any pain emanating from the knee. A simple diagnoses is performed through eliminating other conditions such as plica syndrome or patellar tendinitis. There are usually a number of treatments that are used to treat this syndrome, but most respond well to conservative therapy.

Knee Replacement Surgery …

The only time that you might be talking about knee replacement surgery with your doctor, is when you are suffering from osteoarthritis. Whether or not you are contemplating getting knee surgery is entirely dependent on age, your activity level and the degree of pain and disability that you are experiencing. If you’re contemplating whether knee replacement surgery is something that you need, this is something that you need to discuss with your If you’re considering whether knee replacement surgery is something that you need to think about, this is something that needs to be discussed and answered with your orthopaedic surgeon. Surgery will only be an option when nonsurgical interventions through medication and various treatments are unable to alleviate pain. Other possible signs that you might be heading for a knee replacement surgery includes, aching in the joints that are followed by periods of relative relief, pain after extensive use, loss of mobility or joint stiffness after periods of rest or inactivity.

Various knee injuries that are likely to occur … • Many athletes experience

various forms of knee injuries that occur at one time or another. This form of injury usually occurs to the ligaments of the knee that affect four of the major ligaments in the knee including the – anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the medial collateral ligament (MCL) and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

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