A Guide To Chronic Knee Pain
Knee pain is one of those conditions that can prevent you from being your active best. Right from performing simple tasks like sitting and walking, to the more complicated ones like exercises, dance and sports, your knees play a critical role. Obviously, therefore, if your knee hurts, you will not be able to pull off any of these activities.
While many people ignore it and treat it at the most by falling back on pain relievers and balms, the need to visit a doctor only arises when the pain becomes crippling.
One thing that should be clarified before you read this whole blog: do not wait for the pain to increase to book an appointment immediately.
If your knee pain has been bothering you for a while, you could be suffering from chronic knee pain.
Chronic Knee Pain: A Constant Pain
This type of knee pain is a long-term problem, with swelling, sensitivity experienced on both the knees. Many conditions are known to cause chronic knee pain, although many effective treatments exist for the same. However, there is no specific, everyday kind of chronic knee pain, as each case will differ from person to person.
Cause of chronic knee pains
Chronic knee pain as the name suggests is different from that of temporary or regular knee pain. For instance, a temporary kind of knee pain could go away even without treatment or with some mild therapies, but for chronic knee pain to be relieved off, requires procedures. Here are some of the conditions that could cause knee pain
- Osteoarthritis, which is inflammation and joint destruction, causing pain due to the degeneration and possible deterioration of the joint.
- Tendinitis is generally the pain in the front of the knee, which usually aggravates with climbing stairs or walking up an inclined surface.
- Chondromalacia patella is when the cartilage under the kneecap is damaged
- Bursitis is known to be caused due to an injury to the knee which elevates to inflammation.
- Gout is arthritis due to abnormal levels or builds up of uric acid.
- Baker’s cyst is a buildup of the synovial fluid, which is responsible for lubricating the joint.
- Rheumatoid arthritis is a known chronic autoimmune inflammatory disorder. IT causes swelling which is also painful and eventually lead to deformity of the joint and also cause bone erosion.
- Meniscus Tear
- Torn ligament or other ligament damage
- Bone tumours
Symptoms of chronic knee pain include
- Constant, persistent aching of the knee
- A sharp, shooting pain when the knee is put to use.
- A dull burning discomfort.
Treatments for chronic knee pain
As mentioned earlier, chronic knee pain differs from person to person. After the diagnosis of the knee situation, doctors might suggest treatments ranging in the following –
- Medication
- Physical therapy
- Injections
- Surgical procedures
- Fitness goals
Chronic knee pain can cause more harm than you think, restricting your normal functioning and activity to a great extent. On the other hand, it could also turn around our lifestyle into something much more inactive and tends to make you care for the knee and its pain more than you would want. Fitness is the first step towards anything that causes bodily pain unless it is a medical condition. Consult Your Doctor if you have persistent pain in the knee which refuses to go away or any of the symptoms mentioned above.