Caring Medical
& Rehabilitation Services
715 Lake Street, Suite 600
Oak Park, Illinois 60301
708.848.7789 Phone
708.848.7763 Fax

Cause of Knee Pain

In diagnosing the cause of knee pain, it is important to carefully examine the knees. A patient whose knees cave inward has a condition known as knocked-knees. This stresses and weakens the medial collateral ligament on the inside of the knee.

Prolotherapy (an alternative to knee surgery) will strengthen this ligament. Alternately, knees with an outward curvature is a condition known as bow legs. This position applies additional strain on the outside knee ligament, the lateral collateral ligament.

It is important to understand the referral patterns of these two ligaments. The medial collateral ligament refers pain down the leg to the big toe and the lateral collateral ligament refers pain to the lateral foot. The ligaments inside the knee are called the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. These ligaments help stabilize the knee preventing excessive forward and backward movement.

When these ligaments are loose, even in a young person, degenerative arthritis begins to form. Prolotherapy causes a stabilization of the knee after these ligaments are treated. The feeling of a loose knee is reason enough to suspect ligament injury. The cruciate ligaments are the power horses that stabilize the knee. They refer pain to the back of the knee. Posterior knee pain may be an indication of ligament injury.

Meniscal injuries are suspected if the patient reports a "catching sensation" in the knee or if the knee must be "jiggled" to produce full range of motion. Articular cartilage injuries exhibit similar symptoms making it difficult to clinically differentiate them. However, they can be differentiated using X-rays.

Prolotherapy is indicated regardless of whether the injury causing the knee pain is due to a meniscal or articular cartilage injury. Prolotherapy injected into a joint requires a more concentrated solution because the joint fluid has a diluting effect.