Knee Conditions

Knee Microfracture Results a Bust in Long-term Study

Knee microfracture has become a standard of care procedure for small knee arthritis cartilage lesions. However, do we have research showing that it helps long-term? What are knee microfracture results? A new research study suggests that the long-term outcomes are pretty bad. Knee microfracture is about a 20 year old orthopedic surgery technique that’s commonly…read more

Foot Arch Knee Pain? Research Links Your Foot Navicular Bone Position to Your Knee

Can you have foot arch knee pain? Yesterday I watched the inaugural Boulder Iron man Race. As the runners filed by, I couldn’t help but notice their gait. In some, according to a new study, not paying attention to a little bone in their feet may be frying the cartilage in their knees. First, as…read more

Lateral Release Recovery: Do We Know this Knee Surgery Actually Works?

Why undergo lateral release recovery at all? If I had to create a list of bad knee surgeries just based on the hundreds of patients I’ve seen with failed knee surgeries, lateral release for knee cap tracking problems would be near the top of that list. Based on that experience, it’s another knee surgery with…read more

Knee Nerve Pain? More Evidence that the Pain of Arthritis is Caused by Nerves

Is there such a thing as knee nerve pain? Your joint pain due to arthritis is caused by lost cartilage, right? Likely wrong. There’s been a mounting body of evidence that arthritis itself doesn’t cause pain, and in fact the pain of arthritis (and perhaps arthritis itself in some cases), is caused by nerves. The…read more

If I Have a Hole in My Knee Cartilage, Surely it’s causing My Knee Pain?

I have a hole in my knee cartilage on my MRI…am I doomed? A new study would suggest you may want to ignore the hole, as your other knee that doesn’t hurt likely has one too. MRI is a wonderful tool, but regrettably it’s a two edged sword. What do I mean? Study after study continues…read more

Squats and Cartilage Loss -or- “Squat Lift Knee Arthritis”

What is “Squat Lift Knee Arthritis’?  Well, one common gym activity that we see cause injury is the weight lifting squat. Usually, it will cause low back disc injuries, as carrying hundreds of pounds on your back and flexing your spine can be a bad thing (who knew?) This week a paper was published showing a connection…read more

Patella Alta Treatment: What You Can Do When You’re Knee Cap is Too High

Patella Alta Treatment is tricky because of the biomechanics of the knee, but we can certainly help. Patella alta is a condition where patients are born with their knee cap seated way too high. The normal knee cap sits in a groove and to work well, the cartilage of the groove has to make good contact…read more

New Study: Your Meniscus Tear may be Caused by a Bad Nerve in Your Back

You don’t often hear meniscus tear and bad back nerves in the same sentence.  But we see patients all the time who have low level issues in their low back causing problems in the knee. Most of these patients don’t think they have a back issue because their back doesn’t hurt much. However, a new…read more