Knee Cap Pain

This article is about the knee problems which could lead to severe knee cap pain and the treatments available for it.

Importance of knee could only be understood after we understand the anatomy and the function of the knee. Knee is the most important joint of the body and is the largest and a complex joint. It is the meeting point of the femur and the tibia and acts as a hinge while walking or running, bending, etc. The knee is protected by a knee cap on the anterior side which also contains a cartilage beneath it to facilitate the smooth movement of the bones in the joint. Since the knee bears the weight of the body it is the patella or the kneecap which helps the knee in this function and also helps in absorbing any jerk or shocks that the body experience while in a vertical position. When these shocks are severe they result in injury with knee cap pain as symptoms of it.

Pain in front part of knee has off late become a common problem. These pains are due to straining of connective tissues and cartilages around the knee cap. Any type of activity which puts load on the knee is the cause of knee cap pain. Activities like running, cycling, skiing, jumping all comes in category of high pressure activity for the knees. It is an interesting fact that the cartilage lying beneath the knee cap starts to get degenerate at the very young age of 15. Hence the wear and tear to a cartilage begins to happen from early in our lifetime.

Chondromalacia is the most common disease which causes the knee cap pain in people of age group 15 to 60. The common symptoms of this disease is grinding sound coming from the knee while sitting or squatting, swelling of the knee with chronic pain. Normally a cartilage in our body does not have a nerve ending hence there is no pain but the cartilage of the patella consists of nerve endings and hence we can feel the pain in our knee cartilage. With continuous straining the cartilage begins to break down causing the painful situation.

Other knee cap problems include subluxation or dislocation of knee cap. When the patella comes out of its groove it causes a burning pain and is called knee dislocation. It may occur due to some major injury to the knee. It is observed that women have more instances of kneecap dislocation then men. Pre patellar bursitis also known as housemaid’s knee also causes acute knee cap pain. This is a common problem in people whose work requires them to be on knees for most of their time like a gardener or a carpet layer. It is a result of inflammation of the sac filled with the fluid which provides the smooth movement of the bones.

The treatment of knee cap pain is focused on the reducing the pain. Apart from the medicines that are available in the market, alternative therapies are said to yield a good results as well. Application of cold and hot massage also reduces the pain. There are herbal and natural remedies which are now used in treating the knee cap pain resulting from the various problems.

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