Knee Pain Treatments Near Fort Worth, Texas

What Causes Knee Pain?

There are two broad categories of knee pain causes: acute injuries and chronic issues. Twisting or bending your knee in an unnatural way while playing your favorite sport or simply falling down or bumping into something can cause a major problem with your knee.

After an injury, patients will usually experience pain, bruising, swelling, or all three symptoms at once. Your knees are the largest joint in your body and are integral to walking and running properly, so even a minor injury can affect your day-to-day life substantially.

Some patients may also have conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, or sports-related stresses on the knee that can cause lifelong issues. These patients usually require different treatment plans and methods.

Patients with both acute injuries and chronic issues may benefit from a call and visit with one of our experienced doctors here at the Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas.

How We Diagnose Knee Pain

Our doctors use a combination of physical examinations, imaging tests, and lab tests to diagnose your knee pain.

The physical examination consists of a visual inspection to check for swelling, tenderness, bruising, and pain. Our specialists also perform tests to check your knee’s mobility and reflexes. After that, your doctor may recommend imaging tests.

Depending on the suspected cause of pain, the imaging tests may include an X-ray, which can detect both fractures and joint diseases, a computerized tomography scan to look for more subtle issues, an ultrasound, or a magnetic resonance imaging exam, which creates 3D images of your knee’s insides. The latter can help doctors see whether there are any injuries present in the soft tissues of your knee.

Your specialist may want to follow up on these exams with lab tests. They may request blood tests or a procedure called arthrocentesis. In this specific test, the doctor removes fluid from your knee joint and sends it to a lab for further analysis. Your doctor will usually order lab tests if they suspect you’re suffering from an infection or inflammation.

How We Treat Knee Pain

Our knowledgeable specialists recommend different courses of treatment for every patient that walks through our door, depending on the patient’s specific diagnosis, needs, physical issues, and any other underlying conditions. Treatment can range from a simple prescription or physical therapy to more invasive treatments, including injections and surgery.

Medications and Rehabilitation

Medications can help relieve knee pain that develops as a symptom of rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and other degenerative diseases. Physical therapy and strengthening exercises can help strengthen the muscles that surround your knee, which may improve current knee function and protect against future injury.

These exercises are highly recommended for athletes, especially those who may have developed knee pain as a result of specific movement patterns that led to undue stress on the knee. Relearning how to move in a way that better supports your knee may be the key to preventing future injuries. In other situations, specialists may recommend orthopedic interventions, such as arch supports or braces, to help improve knee pain, especially when it’s a symptom of a disease such as osteoarthritis.

Injections and Surgery

Some patients may require further interventions, such as injections of corticosteroids to reduce arthritis symptoms and provide pain relief, hyaluronic acid injections that lubricate the joints and increase the knee’s mobility, and platelet-rich plasma shots, which are thought to reduce inflammation.

In more severe cases, you may need surgery to help heal your knee and reduce any pain you’re feeling. Our specialists will consult with patients to see whether surgery is truly necessary or if physical rehabilitation alone can fix the issue causing your knee pain.

Potential surgeries for knee pain include arthroscopic surgeries, which repair joint damage, partial knee replacement surgeries to replace very damaged parts of the knee joint with metal and plastic parts, total knee replacement, or an osteotomy to align the knee better with the rest of your leg’s musculoskeletal system.

All the above diagnoses and treatments require the assistance of an orthopedic knee doctor to walk you through the process from start to finish. If you live in the Fort Worth area and have an acute injury or chronic knee pain that is affecting your mobility, daily activity, and quality of life, please contact us at Orthopedic Specialists of North Texas today to speak with our knowledgeable knee specialists in Denton.