Types of knee injuries: Symptoms and causes

The knee joint is one of the most complex joints in the human body, since it supports a large part of a person's weight and is involved in all the movements performed daily such as walking, jumping, running or performing certain exercises such as going up or down stairs, among others.

The most common knee injuries occur in soft tissues such as ligaments and tendons, although it is also possible that the bone can be damaged. 

If you are interested in how to prevent these injuries you can study the Master in Sports Physiotherapy where you will learn in a practical and theoretical way everything related to sports activity, injuries, treatments and types of prevention.

Identifying the different knee injuries

In this section, we’ll look at the main knee injuries that are caused both in high performance sports, beginners and people who do not exercise daily.

• Knee sprain: one or more ligaments can be torn or ruptured due to a twist or pull while exercising.
• Tear: occurs when a tendon or muscle is overstretched.
• Meniscus injury: you feel swelling, stiffness, a lot of pain and loss of mobility when torn, since the meniscus is a crescent-shaped disc that serves as a shock absorber for the knee.
• Bursitis of knee: in this case, they are injuries that affect the synovial bags. These are responsible for cushioning the outer area of the joint and are filled with fluid.
• Excessive use of the knee: it is one of the most common injuries of the runner, it is a knee injury due to wear and tear.
• Ligament injury: it is frequent in team sports and others where changes of rhythm and direction are made. This type of injury involves intense pain, inflammation and blockage in the joint. In this type of injury there are three variants: first degree (sprain without tear), second degree (sprain with partial tear), and third degree (sprain with total tear of the ligament).

Other common knee injuries

There are other knee injuries that are classified according to whether they are arthritic or mechanical.

Arthritic type knee injuries

• Arthrosis: it appears by the wear of the cartilage of the knee due to the use and the passage of time, affecting mainly to the articulation of the knee.
• Gout: it is produced when uric acid crystals originate in the knee.
• Rheumatoid arthritis: it is an autoimmune disease that affects any joint in the body.

Mechanical type knee injuries

• Dislocation: occurs when the knee bone moves outward.
• Loose body: affects the knee joint and mobility because it is a loose body inside, either a piece of bone or cartilage.
• Joint pain: when suffering from pain or problems in other joints such as hips or ankles, there is a tendency to strain the knee, thus modifying the gait among others and exerting too much force on the knee, resulting in pain and pressure.

Symptoms and causes of knee injuries

The symptoms related to knee injuries are very similar, mainly the following can be classified.

• Knee pain (to a greater or lesser degree).
• Inflammation of the knee by accumulation of liquid.
• Instability in knee.
• Sensation that something breaks inside when the injury occurs.
• Total or partial loss of support in the leg when trying to load the weight of the body.

The causes for which knee injuries can be suffered are very varied. Next, we indicate the most frequent ones.

• To receive an impact in the knee by a blow or fall of the individual.
• To carry out activity that implies to jump, to run, to stop or to change of direction can produce muscular injuries and knee among others.
• To suffer overweight or some disease of arthritic type.
• To go downstairs, to support the knee badly when walking, etc. They are actions of daily life where injuries can be suffered without the need to receive any blow.

Diagnosis and treatments in knee injuries

To diagnose what happens to the patient and to give a treatment according to the ailment, the doctor will make a supervision of the area some or all the following verifications.

• An inspection of the knee for swelling, pain, bruising or other symptoms.
• Check for mobility of the knee (full, partial, or mild).
• Stretch and push the knee to evaluate the structure of the knee.

Diagnostic tests may be done such as:

• X-rays: helps detect possible bone breaks.
• CT scan: combination of x-rays taken from different views to diagnose bone problems and small cracks.
• Ultrasound: produces images of the soft tissue both inside and around the knee.
• MRI: radio waves and a magnetic field are used to produce 3-D images of the inside of the knee.
• Laboratory: in cases where there is infection or inflammation, blood tests or extraction of the fluid inside the joint may be performed for analysis.

The treatments that are indicated once the exploration and the diagnosis are made can be:

• Medications: anti-inflammatory and or pain relievers.
• Therapy: it is physiotherapy or specific exercises to strengthen the affected area and prevent future injuries.
• Injections: these may be corticosteroids to relieve pain or arthritis, hyaluronic acid to improve mobility or PRP- Platelet-enriched plasma that promotes healing.
• Surgery: an immediate operation is not usually necessary and can be assessed between different options such as arthroscopic surgery (removal of bodies), partial knee replacement surgery, total knee replacement or osteotomy (involves the removal of the femur or tibia for better alignment of the knee).

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