Knee Pain

I spoke of this case on my Facebook page recently.  A friend of mine cornered a colleague and I about his knee pain that began for no known reason the day before.  He spoke of the pain being in the back of his knee and it created a crepitus-like grinding noise when he walked.  Walking made the pain worse and he said the foot on the same side was beginning to feel as if it was tingling and weird.  He denied feeling fatigued, feverish or sick and he appeared healthy and coherent.

We began by looking at the knee from behind.  Checked for swelling or any obvious abnormality.  Nothing too bad was observed, so I palpated the knee for tenderness.  He had pain from the lateral epicondyle of the femur to the medial condyle of the tibia, which outlined the popliteus muscle.  I checked his pulse in his popliteal fossa and his posterior tibial artery and the dorsal pedal artery on this foot and they all felt very strong and normal.  No neurological deficits were observed.

I decided to do some pin and stretch techniques on his popliteus.  This caused a lot of pain and didn't quite address the real issue.  I then thought back to a patient my old mentor Dr. Tweedt had who was suffering from the same issue as my friend.  Dr. Tweedt adjusted the tibia anteriorly and the kid stood up pain free.  The symptoms looked similar to my friends so I had him lie on his back and I debated which adjustment to do on the tibia with a fellow doctorate student (Megan).  She recommended I do one where you put your forearm in the popliteal fossa, flex the hip and knee fully then thrust through the vector.  I set it up, thrusted through and a weird cavitation-like noise happened.  My friend stood up, walked around and said he was 50% better!

I got a text message later that night saying he was near 100% better.  He said he still had some pain but not debilitating pain like the days prior.  I texted him this morning and he said it was much better but still had some pain behind the knee.

Another treatment and some soft tissue work should fix this ailment.  His alternatives?  Medications to reduce muscle spasm, steroid injections to reduce inflammation and at worst, surgery.  I wonder how many folks get those alternative treatments and I wonder if they are still suffering from their problems.

I feel like this is a great example of the power our education at UWS.  We should be proud to be orthopedic specialists because we prevent surgery and restore proper biomechanical function without the use of invasive alternatives.  We are being taught to correct pain producing problems that wreak havoc on many people.

I have been witnessing the power of non-invasive musculoskeltal care on a number of patients at the CIC.  I have also been applying therapies personally and seeing how quickly people respond to care.  It prides me to know that there is so much good out there in the profession I chose against many others of equal value.

Go us!