Pain in the knee can be due to several disorders. It may be due to any disorder of muscle, tendon, or ligament of the knee or maybe because of any leg deformity. Physical therapy for knee pain involves a complete evaluation and assessment of the function of your lower extremities and knee. By this, your PT can access the underlying cause of knee pain and prescribe you the right exercise and modalities. It also helps with knee pain and improves your functional mobility.
What Type of Knee Pain Do You Have?
If you are suffering from knee pain the very first and most important step for physical therapy treatment is to evaluate if the pain is acute subacute or chronic
Acute Pain
It is the most severe pain and occurs within the first 1 to 7 days of injury. At this time no exercise is suggested and you are just advised to take a rest keep your injured part elevated and apply compression or ice on an injury
Subacute pain
This is the pain that starts after two to six weeks of injury it is the time when you start to gently move your knee and perform gentle exercises for regaining mobility
Chronic pain
It is the pain that lasts longer than 8 to 12 weeks this requires special care and proper evaluation by your healthcare provider
Physical Therapist role in knee pain
If your knee pain continues for a long time then you are referred to a physical therapist for knee pain in the initial visit to a physical therapist who will perform multiple tests and ask several questions to evaluate your problem and then create a proper plan for its management. The examination consists of several tests including
- Gait evaluation: a physical therapist noticed any small change in the knee when you are walking or turning your knee
- Your physical therapist also use the hand to touch various structures around the knee to feel any abnormality or any structure that causes pain when touched
- They also evaluate your range of motion by examining how far the knee joint is bending or stretching
- The knee joint is attached to various muscles tendons and ligaments that’s why the measure of the strength of the knee can help determine the strength or weakness of the muscles around it so a physical therapist also consider checking the strength of the knee joint during the examination
- They will also perform assessments for checking your balance swelling and pain so that they can plan a treatment for you
Catch on to your therapists
After evaluation of all these things, a physical therapist will plan a set of exercises and modalities which will help to increase your range of motion decrease pain and swelling, and increase functional mobility in your knee
so that you can perform your activities effectively
Get treatment now
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