Why is the knee so prone to pain and injury? It seems like a joint that performs a simple function like a hinge shouldn’t be the cause of so much pain for so many people, but that is because the knee is actually the largest and most complex joint in your body.
Not only does it bear the force of one and a half times your body weight with every step, but it has two separate joints and a system of tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and the patella and allows much more movement than simply bending and extending your legs.
Each of these components can suffer trauma and wear and tear over time, resulting in debilitating pain and loss of motion. Standing from a seated position, taking the stairs, picking up and carrying groceries, or even walking across the room can become impossible when the knee is injured.
Treatment Options for Knee Pain
Surgical intervention and the pain medication cycle
Many people either try to mask the pain with medication, but this leads to an ongoing cycle that is difficult to escape. The pain medication masks the inflammation and damage that is causing the body to send the pain impulses to the brain.
The root cause remains unchanged and worsens over time, depending on the type of damage to the knee. Arthritis, cartilage tears and tendons, and ligament damage do not heal themselves, so we take more medicine to mask the ever-increasing pain.
At this point, many people decide that knee surgery is their only option. These invasive procedures can have long recovery periods, during which the patient also needs to be on a pain medication regimen and undergo months of physical therapy and recovery. Like any surgery, knee surgeries come with other risks, such as secondary infection, problems with anesthesia, and nerve and arterial injuries.
Non-invasive alternatives to treating knee pain
Luckily, there are techniques that have been proven to help the body heal from tissue damage that causes most knee pain, such as, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections at the site of the knee pain actually promote the body to use its own healing process to repair and renew the tissue within the knee that is causing the inflammation.
Whether it is simple wear and tear on cartilage or ligament or tendon damage, using a PRP treatment can promote the tissue to heal, removing the cause of the inflammation and pain. If our medical team decides that PRP treatments are right for your case, they begin by removing some of your own blood and using a centrifuge to separate out the components.
This allows the team to create a concentrated solution of your own platelets, the cells in your body that promote healing by sending messages to damaged tissues and cells to regenerate. Once the tissue is healed and the inflammation subsides, so does the pain.
If you are suffering from knee pain and wish to avoid the pain cycle of reliance on medication and want to avoid invasive surgery, PRP treatment could be the answer to getting you back on your feet again.