Common Athletic Knee Injuries

Our knees bear a lot of our weight day in and day out. We rely on them for everything! So it isn’t a surprise that more than 5.5 million people visit an orthopedic surgeon each year for knee problems. If you have a knee injury, it’s important that you know what exactly the problem is, along with the severity, so you and your doctor can make the decision on what’s the best way to treat it.

There is a wide range of different types of knee injuries, ranging from mild to severe. They are all treated differently, and a lot require using a knee brace. Whatever the injury is, be sure to consult with your doctor before using any kind of brace or treating it in any way.

Runner’s knee

Chrondromalacia, or runner’s knee, is a very common knee injury, and one that should be treated as not to cause anything more severe. It’s especially common with people just getting back into running, or people who have been increasing their running workout. Your knee may feel tender, even painful in the front, and you may experience a grating sensation throughout the entire knee. Usually, chrondromalacia can be treated by simple rest, but in more severe cases could require physical therapy. If there is a problem with the alignment of the patella, surgery may even be required. It’s important to be thorough in stretching your hamstrings before running to avoid a case of runner’s knee, and consider wearing a knee brace.

Tendonitis

Tendonitis can occur in just about every area of the body, and can be a common injury in knees for athletes. Like most knee injuries, tendonitis ranges from mild to severe cases, and needs to be treated regardless of the severity. Usually, the only real initial symptom that occurs with tendonitis is just pain, either at a stand still or when walking. In severe cases though, tendonitis can be so painful that you may not even be able to move you knee. In mild cases, resting the injured knee is usually all it takes to recover. But in more severe cases, physical therapy or even surgery may be required.

Anterior cruciate ligament injury

Any sort of damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (commonly referred to as the ACL) can be extremely detrimental to your athletic career, at least for a long while. Recovering from an ACL injury takes a lot of time and physical therapy, and in a lot of cases requires surgery. The ACL may either be over-stretched, or torn. If a full or partial tear of the ACL is deemed to be the issue, your doctor will recommend certain remedies, perhaps even a knee brace from a website like BetterBraces.com. Symptoms of an ACL tear usually include hearing a loud “popping” noise at the time of the injury accompanied with a lot of severe pain. Within a few hours, the knee will likely swell dramatically and putting any sort of weight on the knee results in unbearable pain.

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