The only way to really know how serious your knee pain is would be to have a doctor examine it and then take images of the knee (i.e. x-ray, MRI) to see the extent of the injury or damage. The amount of pain you feel isn’t the best indicator for how bad the problem is. Some patients have severe arthritis in the knee but only experience mild pain and stiffness, but if the problem isn’t handled, it could lead to having to undergo knee replacement surgery. A good history and thorough examination of the knee is the best way to start. Examination tests can help determine what is wrong with the knee. For example, there are tests that can show if your problem is arthritis, instability, meniscus tear, ligament damage, or tendonitis of the knee to name a few. X-Rays of the knee can show alignment, arthritis, loss of normal joint space or “bone on bone”, and calcifications of the soft tissues around the knee. Once this initial information is obtained, we can determine how serious the cause of your knee pain is.

The most common causes of knee pain are injury, repetitive use of the joints and age. These can lead to abnormal adhesions, scar tissue, chronic inflammation and arthritis. These abnormalities can make it difficult to walk, climb steps, bend at the knee, and even have a good night’s sleep without pain. Since ligaments, tendons, and cartilage don’t have a good blood supply, these tissues tend to heal very slowly or not at all unless a program of care is designed to address that.

There are several treatment options that can be done to help with knee pain. For example, a common medical procedure is a steroid or “cortisone” injection can be done in the knee joint. This can help with the pain tremendously, but doesn’t address the cause of the pain. When the injection wears off, the pain will almost always come back and be worse than it was before as the condition continued to worsen, but the patient wasn’t able to know that because of the injection. At Multi-Care, we feel the best way to get rid of the knee pain is to address the cause. So people with knee pain may go through different treatment protocols because they may have different knee problems. For example, losing weight can help with those patients with knee pain who are overweight or obese. Did you know that for every pound you lose, it takes 5lbs of pressure off the knee joint? So losing 20lbs can take 80lbs of pressure off the knees. If you have a degenerated or arthritic knee and are overweight, losing weight will take pressure off the knee, but it doesn’t fix the knee. So each patient is individual and has to be examined and images taken to know the best solution to your pain. Remember, healthy tissue moves freely without pain and restriction. If your knee doesn’t the sooner you address it the easier and better the outcome will be. One of our favorite treatments for knee pain is called shockwave therapy but don’t be alarmed by the name – there is no “shock” to the treatment.

Shockwave Therapy (also called Acoustic Wave Therapy) rapidly relieves chronic and acute knee pain. It is an amazingly effective non-invasive therapy that eliminates pain, remodels adhesions and scar tissue and greatly speeds up recovery time. It has been used for decades as a non-surgical treatment option. Shockwave therapy accelerates tissue regeneration by “kick-starting” the angiogenesis process – meaning it forms new blood vessels around the area of the injury. This triggers multiple beneficial effects including nitric oxide release and activation of stem cells and growth factors. The mechanical energy that is created by the therapy improves movement and function by minimizing and disrupting the impact of the fibrotic tissues. The treatment is applied to the painful areas and surrounding connective tissues. The Acoustic Wave technology is a clinically proven treatment for knee pain and many other musculoskeletal conditions. The vast majority of patients can tell in the first five minutes of their first treatment if it helps.

The treatment itself is not painful and very tolerable for the majority of patients. If it is uncomfortable, the treatment can be modified so that it is very comfortable and yet still effective. Our doctors are well trained in this therapy and are able to adjust the treatment to each individual to get the best and quickest results while making the treatment comfortable at the same time.