Knee Pain: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

What causes knee pain, and how to treat it?

Knee pain can be result of various conditions and diseases that affect the knee joint or the bones, the soft tissue and the nerves that support the knee area. Actually, the knee joint is the most frequently affected area among other rheumatic related problems, immune related sicknesses that involve various parts of the body especially the joints which eventually trigger arthritis.

Arthritis is a condition that causes swelling inside our joint. The common factors that trigger knee joint inflammation can be due to osteoarthritis, a kind of non-inflammatory  arthritis which causes a deterioration of the cartilage of the knee. It can also be due to kinds of arthritis that cause swelling such as gout or rheumatoid arthritis. Treatment of the arthritis is depends on the characteristics of the particular type of arthritis. For example we’ve covered that in our articles about Reactive Arthritis and Psoriatic Arthritis.

Inflammation of the knee joint because of arthritis can cause a fluid that builds up in a cyst behind the knee. This is medically known as a Baker cyst and is a widespread factor in causing pain at the back of our knee.

Infections of the joint or bone can seldom be a viable cause of knee pain and show up in related signs of infection that triggers extreme heat, chills of the body, fever, warmth of the joint, and could related with puncture injuries in the area in the region of the knee.

Tumors in the joint are extremely seldom. However they can aggravate the local pain.

The collateral ligament which is part of the knee structure is prone to getting calcified and is medically known as Pellegrini-Stieda condition. This condition inflames the knee and has to be treated with popular remedies such as ice packs, restricting movement, and simply resting. Sometimes it may require a local injection of corticosteroids.

Chondromalacia is a condition that softens  the cartilage which is located below patella or the kneecap . This is the most common culprit behind the deep knee pain and stiffness in younger females. Usual symptoms are  pain and stiffness after sitting and climbing hills or stairs for long time. Doctors may attempt to treat it with anti-inflammatory drugs, rest and ice packs however long-term solution would be to strengthen  the quadriceps muscles of the front of the thigh with exercises.

There’s also Bursitis of the knee that usually occur on the inside of the knee and medically known as anserine bursitis. However bursitis on the front of the kneecap is called patellar bursitis, or sometimes housemaid’s knee. Bursitis  can also be relieved with ice packs, less movements and and anti swelling drugs such as ibuprofen or aspirin and could also need local injections of corticosteroids administered. It acts as exercise therapy to build up the musculature of the front of the thigh.

There are also other causes of the knee pain, we’ll cover them more in our other articles:
Injury, Ligament injury, Meniscus tears, Tendinitis, Fractures