Knee pain is commonly treated by physiotherapists.
Injuries to the muscles, menisci, ligaments and malalignment conditions are the most common things our physiotherapists in Grange diagnose and treat.
While anyone can suffer with knee pain, it is commonly seen in the sporting athlete (runners, skiers, footy players) as well as older populations (wear and tear, degeneration and arthritis).
Acute vs Chronic Knee Pain
Knee pain can be acute or chronic.
Acute knee pain usually occurs through a trauma injury, causing sprains or tears to the ligaments or menisci in the knee.
Chronic knee pain can occur through muscle imbalance, wear and tear injuries (degeneration) or osteoarthritis.
Treating Knee Pain
- Diagnosis : Your physio will perform tests to diagnose your injury and plan out the course of treatment.
- Reduce Pain : Treating your knee and surrounding structures to reduce pain and pain medication (analgesics and NSAIDs) is our first priority. Treatment can include hands on techniques, mobilisations, massage, myofascial cupping, dry needling, ultrasound, taping and more. You will also likely have some gentle stretching and/or strengthening exercises to do at home so you can have a speedy recovery.
- Graded Exposure : It is important not only to reduce pain, but to also condition your knee to the shock absorbing forces it will experience in day to day life. Graded exposure is just a fancy way of reintroducing your usual activities in a measured manner. For an athlete, twisting and jumping forces should be applied during the rehabilitation process to ensure full recovery and prevent re-injury. In an older person, more gentle shock-absorbing or twisting exercises can be practiced, such as step ups. If step 3 is skipped, re-occurrence and painful flares are likely as you return to your usual activities.
Not all knee injuries are positive on testing, so an MRI scan may be needed to diagnose the injury.
Common knee complaints our physiotherapists treat:
- Meniscus tears
- Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprains and tears
- Medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprains and tears
- Lateral collateral ligament (LCL) sprains and tears
- Patellofemeral pain syndrome
- Oshgood-Schlatters
- Runners/jumpers knee
- Patella fat pad
- Iliotibial pain syndrome
- Osteoarthritis
- Degeneration
- Post-operative rehabilitation
We hope this helps. If you would like more information or would like to see one of our physios for your knee, please contact us on 8356 1379 or book online here
Our physiotherapists treat people from Grange and its surrounding suburbs of Henley, Fulham, West Lakes, Woodville, Seaton and Semaphore.
We look forward to meeting you soon!
Steph and the Phyx. team
