When to Consider Surgery For Persistent Knee Pain

You use your knees when you run, walk, or climb up the stairs. Your knees are vital to your gym workouts and your ability to complete everyday tasks, including climbing the stairs to go to bed at night.

There are a lot of issues that affect your knees, including injuries and arthritis. When these problems cause chronic pain, you need to consider your treatment options, including knee surgery.

At Integrated Body and Medicine, our team specializes in treating many forms of pain, including joint problems. We have the knowledge and experience to help you decide if surgery is the next step in your treatment plan for chronic knee pain.

Osteoarthritis and your knees

Your knees take a lot of stress throughout your lifetime, so it's no surprise that you could end up with pain at some point. Knee pain is either acute or chronic and affects you in various ways.

Acute injuries from sports or accidents involve different aspects of your joint. For instance, an ACL tear affects your knee in a different way than a fractured kneecap or meniscus tear. Injuries to your knee can have lasting effects and lead to chronic pain in some cases.

As you age, arthritis is the most common cause of persistent knee pain. The most prevalent form of arthritis is osteoarthritis, a wear-and-tear disease.

Over time, osteoarthritis affects your knee joints by slowly wearing down the protective layer of cartilage. Once the cartilage is gone, you end up with inflammation and chronic pain in your knee joint.

Osteoarthritis could be the culprit if you're suffering from persistent knee pain resistant to treatment.

When do you require surgery?

You don't have to jump into surgery immediately when you have chronic knee pain. There are plenty of treatments available that ease your pain, but when your pain persists despite your best efforts, it might be time to think about surgery.

We evaluate your pain to determine the best treatment for your condition. We might recommend surgery if:

You've tried other treatments

Typically, we treat knee pain conservatively, including activity modifications, physical therapy, and medications. But if these approaches don’t provide significant relief, you may want to consider surgery as the next step.

Pain keeps you up at night

If your pain is severe enough to keep you up at night, you may need more aggressive treatment. Pain that gets more severe or persists despite your best efforts is serious. We should evaluate your knee joint for osteoarthritis.

You can no longer perform your everyday activities

Are you finding it hard to walk to the mailbox or down the stairs to get your coffee in the morning? If your knee pain is keeping you from your usual activities, even with treatment, you may want to consider surgery.

The joint is severely deformed

Severe arthritis sometimes leads to deformity in your joints or structural abnormalities. If arthritis affects your joints in this way, we may recommend surgery to repair the damage and restore functionality.

Surgery is a big commitment and comes with possible complications, so we only consider it when necessary. We help you understand what's happening within your knee joint to determine if surgery is the next step.

To talk to our team about chronic knee pain, call our greater Highland and Hammond, Indiana, area office to schedule an appointment, or send us a message to book online.