This will help your physical therapist determine a proper diagnosis and treatment plan specific to your needs. When you see a physical therapist, they will conduct a thorough subjective and objective examination to determine the cause of your knee pain. This will help to rule out any serious causes for your pain (in case they need to refer you out) and identify any potential risk factors that may have contributed to your condition. Remember, you can go straight to a physical therapist without a referral to get the relief you’re looking for sooner rather than later.
You may need to add weights to make your muscles work harder. Insurance companies often use pain rating scales to determine medical necessity. Treatment is usually approved for moderate to severe pain.
Knee pain can be debilitating and affect your daily activities. Whether it’s due to an injury, arthritis, or overuse, seeking treatment is essential for improving mobility and reducing discomfort. Physical therapy is a non-invasive and effective way to manage knee pain and regain strength in the joint.
“Losing weight is probably the most difficult part of the treatment puzzle, but it’s also the most important,” says Dr. Day. Because of this, a partial meniscectomy is typically reserved for traumatic meniscal tears or for people who get minimal pain relief from PT. While meniscal repairs have better long-term outcomes than meniscectomy surgeries and are less likely to lead to osteoarthritis, only a small portion of tears can be surgically repaired. This is because repairs are typically able to be performed only on tears on the outer third of the meniscus, which has better blood flow than the rest of the structure.
How Does Physical Therapy Help?
Physical therapy for knee pain focuses on strengthening the muscles around the knee, improving flexibility, and correcting movement patterns that may be contributing to the pain. A physical therapist will assess your condition and create a personalized treatment plan to address your specific needs.
Benefits of Physical Therapy
- Reduces pain and inflammation
- Improves range of motion
- Enhances muscle strength and stability
- Prevents future injuries
- Promotes overall joint health
They gave excellent physiotherapy treatment and advice to my husband who had just had a hip replacement. Table 2 demonstrates the mechanical stimulation including intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) and graduated compression stockings (GCS). Moreover, neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) was also applied to manage various clinical conditions (Fig. 2).
You might feel pain every once in a while, but don’t ignore it if it’s been more than a few days in a row since you’ve been pain-free. While you can take pain-relieving drugs for knee osteoarthritis, they should be used cautiously and only as one part of a more comprehensive approach. “Each person is unique, so we have to formulate an individualized treatment plan,” says sports medicine specialist Carly Day, MD. If other conservative treatments for osteoarthritic knee pain fail to provide relief, a total knee replacement is often needed to correct the problem. In addition, there is questionable evidence supporting the use of a partial meniscectomy surgery to treat degenerative meniscal tears caused by osteoarthritis. Instead, addressing this type of pain with physical therapy seems to produce superior outcomes over time.
Yet studies in recent years have found that most of these injections actually do very little to improve osteoarthritis in the knees and are only slightly more effective than a placebo. For example, all types of arthritis respond well to physical therapy for knee pain — just check with your doctor first, proceed cautiously, and listen to your body. So, if strengthening your knee isn’t giving you results, please check with your doctor or physical therapist. They will help you figure out what’s going on and determine the best treatment plan for you. Your physical therapist may refer you to an orthopedic doctor who specializes in knee conditions and injuries.
FAQs
Q: How long does it take to see results from physical therapy?
A: The timeline for improvement varies for each individual, but many patients experience relief within a few weeks of starting physical therapy.
Q: Is physical therapy painful?
A: Physical therapy should not be painful, although you may experience some discomfort as you work through exercises and stretches. Your therapist will adjust your treatment plan accordingly to ensure you are progressing safely.
