Knee Pain Treatment with Physiotherapy

What can I do to relieve knee pain?

Your treatment for knee pain will include one or combination of the following treatment options.

1. Medication: Your doctor may prescribe anti-inflammatory or other medicines based on the diagnosis.
2. Injections: In certain cases, you may be advised to take injections like carticosteriods and lubricants, directly into the joint. You should strictly follow your doctor’s advise on these.
3. Physiotherapy: Research establishes that physiotherapy-based knee rehab programs² successfully decrease the pain intensity and improve the knee function. Physiotherapy helps with reducing knee pain by using a variety of physiotherapy modalities including electro-therapy, modalities like hot/cold therapy, Ultrasound, Interferential current therapy. [Video for Understanding Physiotherapy and Equipment]

Physiotherapy is known to have been especially effective to resolve knee pain related to Arthritis³.

At Reliva, your physiotherapist will assess the knee and will teach you different type of strengthening exercises based on the specific condition, causing your pain. Strengthening of adjoining muscles will help make the knee joint more stable. If you are a sportsperson or usually remain physically active, physiotherapist can also teach you correct movement pattern that may be affecting your knee. They will guide you with good technique for your sport/activity.

4. Surgery: When all other conservative options fail, you may be advised a knee surgery to treat that chronic knee pain. Select knee injuries may also need correctional / repair surgery. Knee surgeries range from arthroscopic knee surgery to total knee replacement. Arthroscopic knee surgery is very common surgical procedure to repair ligaments and remove small pieces of lose bones or cartilages.

Physiotherapy remains an integral part of recovery after a knee surgery. Common knee surgeries that will require rehabilitation with a physiotherapist post-operatively include:

• Sports Injury repair [Learn about recovering from ACL Tear by clicking here]
• Knee replacement (TKR or PKR) [Learn recovering from Knee replacement surgery by clicking here]
• Knee Arthroscopy for repair of joint or ligament

What are the Best Exercises for Knee Pain?

Researchers¹ have identified that knees exercises may assist the relief of your knee pain. The important thing to identify is which knee exercises are likely to help you and which could be harmful.  What exercise dosage you should be doing is also important. Your exercise dosage will vary depending upon the phase of your specific diagnosis, your knee injury diagnosis, plus other individual health factors. This is exactly where your physiotherapist’s professional training including knee injury diagnosis and appropriate knee exercise prescription is important to guide you quickly back to pain-free knees.

While we’d like to say that all knee exercises are beneficial to you, there are significant individual differences between all patients who present with knee pain. For example, an older diabetic overweight patient will require a very different set of knee exercises to a young high-performance athlete, or a patient who has just had a knee surgery.

Based on the significant individual differences of who presents with knee pain, it is highly recommended that you seek the professional advice of your trusted physiotherapist or healthcare practitioner who has a special interest in knee pain and injuries to guide your knee rehabilitation.

[ You can call +91 9920991584 or contact us by clicking here and we will help you connect with a physiotherapy specialist in your neighborhood]

What can I do if I have knee pain?

If you have knee pain, here are a few tips that you can follow:

1. Don’t be sedentary. Being sedentary will cause your muscles to weaken up, which in turn will not be able to provide the required support to your knee joint when it most needs it.
2. Do exercise. Cardio exercise along with weight training and stretching helps by strengthening the muscle that support your knee and increase flexibility.
3. Reduce risk of fall. If you are an elderly person reduce your risk of falling by making sure your house is well lit, using handrails on staircase, keep the floor dry to avoid fall and injuring your knee. [ You may find this post useful – click to read Falls prevention among elderly: What to do ]
4. Do keep check on your weight. Keeping weight in control reduces stress on your knees. Hence keep a check on your diet. Anyways movement gets reduced due to knee pain. [ Click here to read about Obesity and Knee Pain]
5. Do use a walking aid. Using a stick or crutch can take the stress off your painful knee. Knee braces or splints also provide good supports until you fully recover.
6. Don’t do too much, too soon. As your knee recovers, take it easy and build up the activity gradually. If you take up aerobic program don’t directly start with high impact exercise as this may cause injury to knee joint. Instead, you can start with a simple walking activity gradually progressing to light jogging, running / sprinting.
7. Don’t ignore your pain. If you experience knee pain which does not subside even after doing home remedies (Check for when to visit doctor in the upper section of this post), You must consult a qualified medical practitioner like a physiotherapist who understands the knee joint and movement, who will help you recover.

Knee Pain FAQ’s

Q1. Who is at risk of getting knee pain?

Ans1. People with the following conditions are prone to having knee pain:

• Excess weight
• Weak muscles
• Older age

Q2. How does physiotherapy help with knee pain?

Ans2. Physiotherapist uses a combination of modalities and exercises to treat your knee pain after a thorough assessment and understanding of what is causing your knee pain. Researchers¹ have identified that knees exercises assist the relief of your knee pain, then nature of exercises and their dosage will be determined by your physiotherapist in line with the treatment plan. Research also establishes Physiotherapy to be particularly effective in resolving knee pain related to arthritis³.

Together with a thorough knee and lower limb assessment, your knee treatment with a ReLiva physiotherapist can progress quickly to get you pain-free and performing your normal sport or daily activities in the shortest time possible.

Scientific References:

1] The pain-relieving qualities of exercise in knee osteoarthritis; Allyn M Susko and G Kelley Fitzgerald; Published online 2013 Oct 15. doi: 10.2147/OARRR.S53974

2] Effect of a physiotherapy rehabilitation program on knee osteoarthritis in patients with different pain intensities; Amr Almaz Abdel-aziem, Elsadat Saad Soliman, Dalia Mohammed Mosaad, and Amira Hussin Draz; Published online 2018 Feb 28. doi: 10.1589/jpts.30.307

3] Effectiveness of home-based physiotherapy on pain and disability in participants with osteoarthritis of knee: an observational study; Gaurav Shori, MPT, Gagan Kapoor, MPT and Prativa Talukdar, MPT; Published online 2018 Oct 12. doi: 10.1589/jpts.30.1232

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