Knee Pain Specialists

Your knees have to cope with a great many stresses and strains every day, so they’re vulnerable to wear-and-tear conditions like osteoarthritis and overuse injuries like tendonitis.

Sports injuries also commonly affect the knees. These injuries can be a result of the effects of shock traveling up your legs when running and jumping, as well as stopping suddenly and turning or twisting awkwardly.

Common causes of knee pain include:

• Osteoarthritis
• Meniscus tears
• Patellar dislocations
• Bursitis
• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries
• Medial collateral ligament (MCL) tears
• Patellar tendon tears
• Runner’s knee (patellofemoral pain)

We most commonly see patients with osteoarthritis, which often results from years of joint use that gradually wears away the layers of cartilage that protects your bones.

The first step to treating your knee pain is determining its cause. For many patients with mild osteoarthritis, the team may recommend conservative treatments including:

• Medications
• Joint injections
• Physical therapy

Lifestyle changes can also be beneficial. For example, being overweight or obese puts tremendous strain on your knees and accelerates the development of osteoarthritis.

Losing weight, eating a healthier diet, and getting the right kind of exercise can all help reduce knee pain.

In some cases, the cause of your knee pain might not respond to these approaches. Cartilage injuries like meniscus tears, for instance, may be unable to heal without surgical repair. Osteoarthritis often worsens over time to a point where conservative therapies are no longer effective. In these cases, your surgeon at Midwest Center for Joint Replacement can go over surgical options with you.

There are several surgical options that can help with severe, chronic knee pain, such as:

Total knee replacement

Your surgeon removes the damaged bones in your knee, and in some cases, the back of your patella (kneecap) as well. He replaces these unhealthy areas of bone with artificial implants that form a new joint.

Partial knee replacement

Partial knee replacement is a similar procedure to total knee replacement but only requires replacing one compartment of your knee joint. Your surgeon might use this option when one or more of your knee compartments is healthy enough to save.

Revision knee replacement

Modern knee replacement implants are now built to last 20 years or longer. However, sometimes knee replacements can malfunction or wear out after years of use, and parts need to be repaired or replaced. Revision surgery is a complex procedure that restores your knee replacement and any damaged surrounding bones.