What is knee pain?

It is a pain that breaks out in the knee and could be the result of several things. The complexity of the design of the knee joint and the fact that it is an active weight-bearing joint are factors in making the knee one of the most commonly injured joints.

What are the symptoms?

Several of the following signs might present:

• Stress, overuse or sudden movement.
• Injury, e.g. a ruptured ligament or tendon, meniscus tears, tendinitis, fractures or torn cartilage.
• Certain medical conditions e.g. arthritis, degeneration, gout, infection, rheumatic diseases and rarely bone tumor.

What is the treatment?

Many minor knee pains respond really well to self-care measures.

• Compress the area with an elastic wrap or bandage.
• Use a cold pack to ice the injured area to help limit swelling after an injury for about 20 minutes.
• Do not use the joint and protect it by using splints to crutches.
• Don't over strain the injured limb without avoiding all activity so that your body won't weaken.
• Raise the injured limb whenever possible to help prevent or limit swelling

Anti-inflammation medications like aspirin and ibuprofen (e.g. Advil) can help relieve the pain. 

If self-care doesn’t help, doctor might recommend physical therapy. If the underlying cause is serious such as gout your doctor might prescribe antirheumatic drugs.

More-serious injuries, however, such as a ruptured ligament may require surgical repair.  Surgical repair of ligament injury can involve suturing, grafting, and synthetic graft repair. You must do your research and consider the pros and cons. 

Prevention:

Although every knee problem can't be prevented — especially if you're active — you can take certain steps to reduce the risk of injury or disease.