KNEE PAIN

Knee pain is the one of most common issue we see treat.  The knee joint is a synovial hinge joint and is prone to injury among athletes and active individuals
There is an epidemic of knee osteoarthritis in New Zealand and total knee replacement surgery is at an all-time high, causing the health care system a huge financial burden.  Total knee replacement surgery does carry significant surgical and anaesthetics risks and the medical literature suggests that the patient outcomes after surgery are not as good as what is perceived in the community. 

So far, most of the treatments available for a knee pain are either wait-and-see or surgery. Often, surgeons tell patients come back to see me when your knee is bad to have a knee replacement, which is very reasonable, as not every knee needs a replacement until the symptoms are severe enough. Other ways of management include physical therapy, weight loss, diet modification and medications. However, these modalities have their limit until the progression of the disease gets worse. Medications is on the other hand, that includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication have the possibility to cause serious side effects. We tend to combine rehabilitation and physical therapy with regenerative musculoskeletal medicine therapies to get the best of the two worlds.

dr zaid mattie

SYMPTOMS OF KNEE PAIN

Symptoms of a knee condition vary greatly and depend on the underlying cause. In association with general pain and discomfort around the joint, the following symptoms can occur.

  • Decreased range of motion

  • Swelling

  • Redness

  • Instability

  • Giving way, clicking and popping noises

  • An inability to straighten your knee or locking

  • DIAGNOSING YOUR KNEE PAIN

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DIAGNOSING YOUR KNEE PAIN

There are a large number of conditions that can cause dysfunction and knee pain.  At MSKDOC, the most common conditions are listed below:

  • Ligament Strains and Sprains (MCL, LCL)
  • Meniscal tears
  • Tendonitis or tendinosis
  • Osteoarthritis and degenerative joint disease
  • Iliotibial band syndrome
  • Patellofemoral Instability
  • ACL and PCL injuries
  • Baker’s Cyst

To determine what precisely is causing your knee pain, we will perform a complete physical examination to understand your lifestyle and what may have triggered the pain. We’ll assess overall biomechanics along with the entire knee to access for pain, swelling, range of motion, stability/laxity, and functional capacity.

Although our physical examination will give us an idea of what’s causing your pain, we’ll often want to confirm our diagnosis with an imaging test. In many cases, this may be a hands-on diagnostic ultrasound to create a live image of your knee to accurately evaluate the soft tissues, tendons, ligaments, and meniscus and to look for joint swelling/bursitis. If a more extensive injury is present involving bone, cartilage or meniscus is suspected, we may promptly obtain MRI.

TREATING YOUR KNEE PAIN

The treatment that best suits each patient depends on the nature of the problem. We specialise in using regenerative medicine techniques to treat your Knee pain, including:

  • Prolotherapy treatments involve injecting a solution containing sugar or ozone to boost your body’s healing responses and create new, healthy tissues.
  • PRP therapy uses powerful cells harvested from the patient’s body to stimulate new cell growth and optimise the repair of damaged tissues.
  • Ultrasound-guided Injections of Corticosteroid can result in good symptomatic relief in many cases while getting the rehabilitation program with your physical therapist, is another viable option.
  • Stem Cell Treatment – Pure Expanded Stem Cell Treatment involves growing a patient’s own stem cells to numbers high enough to allow potential for joint stability and pain management.

Our focus is utilising our treatments and rehabilitation programs towards healing the root cause of your injury or condition without the need for surgery.  We don’t believe in a quick fix, one-size fits all approach.  Instead, we treat all the structures involved in your condition and enjoy working with our patients to achieve the best outcomes to help them return to normal function and a healthier lifestyle as quickly as possible.