Common Causes of Sports-Related Knee Injuries | Treatment Options
A knee injury can happen in any sport, including contact games, such as football or hockey, high-impact sports, such as tennis or volleyball, and individual impact-free sports such as running or bicycling. A severe knee injury can bring your life to a standstill.
What Are the Most Common Causes of Sports-Related Knee Injuries?
Knee flexion and extension are essential for any forward, lateral, upward, or downward movement. Regardless of whether you are starting or stopping, turning left or right, jumping, or twisting, your knees are involved in every workout.
In sports such as football and hockey, knee injuries are typically caused by high-impact stress on the knee resulting from a tackle, block, hit, or cross-check. In hockey, more than any other game, knee injuries from collisions with a foreign object, such as the boards or net post, are highly prevalent.
In all sports involving running and movement, a sudden pivot, stop, jump, or acceleration can lead to a knee injury. For example, in noncontact games such as tennis, an abrupt change in direction can easily result in a meniscus or ligament tear.
What Types of Knee Injuries Are Most Frequent in Athletes?
Meniscus and ligament tears are two common sports-related knee injuries. Complete severance of the meniscus, a cartilage that provides padding to the shin and thigh bone, is rare, but even a partial meniscus tear will cause pain. By contrast, many torn ligaments are complete tears, which can cause pain, swelling, and knee instability.
Sprains, strains, or tears to the tendons or muscles around the knee occur less frequently than meniscus and ligament tears but cause pain, inflammation, and stiffness. A broken kneecap (patella) is the most painful knee injury, but it rarely occurs.
What Are the Treatment Options for Sports-Related Knee Injuries?
Because the meniscus is a cartilage that does not heal on its own, surgery may be necessary in severe tear cases to arthroscopically remove the flap of the meniscus. Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgery that involves the use of an endoscope for treatment. Post-surgery physical therapy is necessary to restore strength and flexibility. Pain medication, muscle-building exercises, or a knee brace are usually sufficient treatment to recover from a partial meniscus tear.
The same treatment options can be applied to remedy knee ligament tears. However, unlike meniscus, ligaments can regenerate over time provided you rest. Surgical repair remains the best option for a significant tear, and the severity of the tear determines whether the surgery should be arthroscopic or invasive.
