Why do you experience chronic knee pain?
Chronic knee pain troubles a significant number of people worldwide. It is a common problem amongst the aging population, and can indeed be very painful and debilitating, sometime even confining individuals to the bed. The most common cause of knee pain in elderly is osteoarthritis (OA), a condition where the cartilages of the knee joint have worn out due to wear and tear. This results in friction between the bones of the joint during movement which results in pain. The impact is more in overweight and obese because of the extra load on the knees. The risk of knee OA in overweight women is nearly 4 times and in overweight men is 5 times greater. It is not just the mechanical factors which promote OA in obesity but also the co-existence of disordered glucose and lipid metabolism and the highly metabolic and inflammatory environments have a significant role.
What can be done for chronic knee pain?
Initial management involves lifestyle modification, supplements, simple pain killers and physiotherapy. It is estimated that an extra Kg of weight exerts a force of nearly three to six times across the knee while walking. Thus, weight loss is an important modifiable factor in the treatment of knee OA which the affected individual can drive. Various studies have demonstrated that weight loss improves both pain and function in obese subjects with knee OA.
Local injections are considered depending on the severity of problem and other factors such as age, functional status etc. When the pain and discomfort is severe your doctor may offer you the option of undergoing a knee replacement surgery. This involves removal of the worn out part of joint, shaping the ends of the bone and placing a metal implant. This reconstruction of the knee joint allows for smooth, pain free movement for most individuals. However some, even following the rehabilitation process, continue to experience pain.
For those who are
- Not keen on the replacement surgery or
- Not fit to have one or
- Continue to have pain after knee replacement surgery
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