Excessive exercise bad for knees
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By Song Sang-ho
As the early summer weather has begun, a large number of people are enjoying a wide range of sports.
However, if you start exercising suddenly or excessively without having made proper preparations, you may experience pain in various parts of the body as time passes, although you may not feel it initially.
In particular, injuries to the knee joints are very common since the knee is subjected to the highest level of compression load during sports activities.
Among various injuries related to the knee, care must be taken against a cruciate ligament tear.
Professional athletes you have seen on TV are not the only people that can experience a cruciate ligament tear.
With the recent increase in the number of people engaging in outdoor activities or sports, the number of ordinary people visiting hospitals due to cruciate ligament tear has increased substantially.
The cruciate ligament connects the thigh bone and the shinbone and maintains the movement and stability of the knee joint.
Cruciate ligament, named due to its crisscrossing in the shape of a cross, is composed of the anterior cruciate ligament and posterior cruciate ligament.
The majority of the injuries that occur during sports activities correspond to an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
The anterior cruciate ligament is an important bodily structure that prevents excessive rotation of the knee by resisting against rotational force.
For this reason, any tear of the anterior cruciate ligament induces the loss of the stability of the knee.
If the injury is not naturally healed, regenerated or treated, it can progress into degenerative arthritis. Therefore, it is important to treat the injury at an early stage.
At the time of an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, you will experience the feeling of something being torn along with ‘thudding’ sound accompanied by swelling and pain.
However, there are cases in which the swelling subsides and pain disappears within a week, thereby resulting in numerous cases in which the patient misses the opportune time to undergo treatment, thinking it is only a simple contusion or muscle pain.
If you engage in exercises that exerts burden on the knees because the swelling subsided and pain disappeared, greater damages to the joint cartilage may be induced.
Accordingly, you need to take precaution when these symptoms manifest initially.
Then, what are the symptoms that indicate an anterior cruciate ligament tear?
You should suspect anterior cruciate ligament tear if you experience severe pain at the knee, find it difficult to bend and extend the knee and experience the feeling of instability while walking after exercising.
In addition, difficulties in supporting the weight with the knee for which abnormal symptoms can be difficulty squatting as an indication of an anterior cruciate ligament tear.
Treatment for cruciate ligament differs depending on the extent of the tear. Although wearing a brace or conservative treatment such as exercise therapy is sufficient if the extent of the tear is minor, reconstruction surgery for cruciate ligament using arthroendoscopy is recommended if the extent of the tear is more than 50%.
Cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery concurrently performs diagnosis and treatment by inserting a 3~5mm sized arthroendoscope into the incision less than 1 cm made at the knee joint. Arthroendoscopic surgery can enhance the treatment effect substantially since the time taken for surgery is short with low level of bleeding and risk of infection due to small incision necessary. Moreover, it is appropriate for younger patients as the surgical procedure would not affect their social life to significant levels because of the short period of hospitalization necessary.
If I were to point out a factor as important as the selection of treatment and surgical method, it would be the management of health of the knee in one’s daily life. It is advisable to avoid exertion of tension to the knee joint in daily life and to fortify the muscles, ligaments and cartilage by doing light stretching prior to and following exercise, aerobic exercise and muscular exercise.
It is concerning that the awareness of the prevention or treatment for injuries has not improved, although the number of people enjoying sporting activities has increased markedly. In spite of the fact that the health one has nurtured during their youth will be the foundation to lead one’s life in good health, the number of patients visiting hospital due to the aggravation of the joints having postponed treatment, hoping their youthfulness will overcome injuries. Please remember that enjoying healthy sports does not end in the venue of the sports.
The writer is the president of Wellton Bone and Joint Hospital.