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The knee is a very important joint in the body and if it’s injured, then it can affect the way you walk and your overall mobility. One of the very common reasons for knee injuries is falling. Here are some knee injuries that are caused by falling or taking a hard impact on your knee which may need the attention of an orthopedic surgeon.
Knee Sprains
Knee ligaments are long and thin elastic bands of flesh, that hold everything together and they also allow you to move your knee in different directions. Sometimes, there can be things that can cause the ligaments to stretch beyond capacity. Even though ligaments are elastic, that doesn’t mean that you should test out the limit. Exercising, running, or falling down hard can stretch a ligament and it can cause a lot of pain in the knee and the surrounding areas. This is typically known as a knee sprain.
Knee sprains are no joke and they can limit your movement for some time until they’re healed. If your sprain looks serious, like there’s a lot of swelling on the knee, you can’t walk without feeling immense pain, there’s a tugging sensation in your knee whenever you try to move it, or the area feels tender, then it’s better to have a doctor look at it. The injury might be severe and you might need more treatment and rest, in order to let the knee heal fully.
Knee Lacerations
A laceration is basically the puncturing of the skin and it leads to the formation of a hole in the skin. If the laceration occurs on the knee, then it’s a knee laceration. Lacerations aren’t painful, per se, but they can be quite uncomfortable and unpleasant to look at and there is a huge risk of infection in the wound. The hole can be small or big, depending on what hit your knee. It can be a nail, a sharp object, or even shards of glass.
The most alarming part of lacerations is that you can contract tetanus, from metals or objects that are rusty or dirty, so that’s a huge scare and you need to go see a doctor to get a shot administered for tetanus, otherwise things might take a turn for the worse.
Knee Contusion
Contusions are also known as bruises. Bruises can be quite painful for the first couple of days after the injury, and any sensation near the bruise can cause shooting and excruciating pain in the knee.
Bruises can occur on the knee because there are a lot of blood vessels and capillaries that might get obstructed if you fall down or take a huge blow on your knee and that part of the vessel has either burst or caused blood to leak underneath. This is what imparts that bluish-yellow hue on your skin and that’s mainly a bruise.
Again, bruises are not something that can cause your knee to get extremely injured, to the point where you can’t even walk, but it’s important that you take care of it, like icing it or giving it alternate hot and cold compressions, as this is going to help the bruise heal faster and the pain will diminish as well.
Meniscus Tear
The femur and tibia contain a space in the middle, where there is an elastic and rubber-like cartilage, and that’s the meniscus. The meniscus is responsible for absorbing any impact on your bones and it also provides support to the bones. Well, the meniscus can also be prone to tears and injuries, especially in people who play a lot of high-intensity sports like baseball and football.
A slight tear on the meniscus is nothing serious, but if the injury is too severe, then it can only be treated by surgery done by a knee specialist Woodbridge if the pain and discomfort isn’t going away, even after a lot of time has passed.
Knee Abrasion
The skin is prone to abrasions. An abrasion is basically the rubbing of the skin against something hard and this can lead to rash-like injuries forming on the surface of the skin. If it happens near the knee or on it, then it’s a knee abrasion.
It can occur in people who fall down on rough things, like concrete, cement floors, or even rough grass. It can cause a bit of bleeding and scabbing, but it’s nothing an antiseptic or wound medication can’t treat. This is also common in children who tend to fall a lot while playing.
Torn Tendons
There are two main tendons present in the knee. One is the quadriceps tendon that is on top of the kneecap and the other one is the patellar tendon that connects the kneecap to the tibia. These tendons can be prone to injury, because of a fall, like falling down the stairs, missing a step and stumbling, etc.
There are non-surgical ways to treat a tendon tear, but in most cases, when the tear is large, surgery is needed in order to stitch it back in place.
Torn Knee Ligaments
Knee ligament injuries are also very common to occur in people who play football, hockey, and other sports that engage their legs a lot. There are ACL injuries, PCL injuries, MCL injuries, and LCL injuries and all of these ligaments are present in the knee. They connect the tibia to the femur and are responsible for different movements of the leg, like side-to-side rocking, backward and forward movement of the feet, and the rotation of the knee in different directions.
Usually, with minor knee ligament injuries, rest is the best treatment and in a couple of weeks, your knee will be better and there’ll be no pain.
Knee Dislocation
If you fall down from a decent height and your knee is part of your body that took the brunt of the fall, then it can cause dislocation of the joint. This can be quite painful and it can physically look very ugly.
Dislocation of the knee is basically the dislodging of the bone from its original place and it can be a fracture too, if there are broken bones involved. In these injuries, time is of the essence, because you want to relocate the knee straight away and secure it with a brace before any other parts of the leg are affected adversely because of the displacement of the joint.
Knee Bursitis
Joints usually have sacs filled with fluid underneath the bone, called Bursae and they are responsible for cushioning the joint as well as enduring impacts of forces. Your knees also have Bursae and just like any other thing, they also have a tendency to get swollen.
This can be visible by looking at your knee and moving your feet can be extremely hard. This normally happens when you fall down at an awkward angle and hit your knee really badly causing inflammation.
Conclusion
Knee injuries due to a fall are not only quite painful, but they can take a considerable amount of time to heal, especially if the severity of the injury is a lot. So, if you fall from a height, go to a knee injury doctor Woodbridge for checkup and treatment.
