Be aware of 'red light' for knee joints

By Song Sang-ho

With the spectacular autumn foliage in full effect, many people decide to climb mountains during the weekends.

This means that a number of people visit hospitals because of injuries for the after-effects of mountain climbing. In fact, mountain climbing itself is an exercise that fundamentally requires substantial physical strength.

Most of the celebrated mountains in Korea renowned for their excellent scenic views of autumn foliage have quite rugged terrain.

The most frequent injury many mountain climbers suffer is a cruciate ligament rupture of the knee. This can often develop into a meniscal tear or damage to the surrounding ligaments if untreated at the proper time.

It is recommended that you undergo examination and treatment right away should you experience any abnormal symptoms.

If you hear a “popping sound” and feel pain in the knees during mountain climbing, and are unable to bend and extend your knees, a cruciate ligament rupture might have occurred.

If you have difficulty bending your knees, tensing up of popliteus and pain when walking up and down the stairs, there is high probability of a meniscal tear.

It is possible to alleviate the pain to certain extent with drug or physiotherapy in the early stages when damage is only minor.

However, most people mistake the pain experienced immediately after mountain climbing simply as muscular pain, rather than a serious injury, and visit hospitals only when the damage has worsened.

In such cases, an arthroscopic procedure is effective. This occurs when a hole with a diameter of less than one centimeter is made at the knee joint area through which an endoscope with a built-in camera is inserted. This serves to treat the injury by suturing and caring the torn cartilage plate, while observing the state of the joint through the monitor.

Accurate diagnosis and treatments are possible since the inner aspects of the joint can be enlarged for close examination through the monitor. It is the most effective treatment method that performs diagnosis and treatment concurrently for disorders that are not detected under special imaging techniques such as CT or MRI.

Management of the injury is just as important as the treatment. Continuous physiotherapy and rehabilitative exercises following the arthroscopic procedure can be greatly helpful in improving the pace of recovery.

However, it does not mean just any exercise without proper planning will be helpful. The types and intensity of the exercise must be determined by considering the opinions of the surgeon examining the patient.

In order to achieve better prognosis after the surgical procedure, exercise for reinforcement of muscle strength of the lower limb and self-management of one’s lifestyle are important.

Patients have to avoid lifting heavy objects. In particular, it is advisable to avoid squatting for prolonged period of time, mopping of floors on your knees and excessively strenuous exercise such as mountain climbing for extended period of time.

Instead, it would be helpful to do aerobic exercises such as walking, aquatic exercises or riding a bicycle; this can reinforce the tissue around the joints without imparting undue burden on the joints.

Of course, prevention of damage before the fact is much easier than undergoing treatment to recover from an injury.

If you are planning to make an excursion for a scenic view of autumn foliage or mountain climbing, you will be able to prevent injuries by equipping yourself with proper clothing and equipment for the purpose, and also by reducing burden on the joints by doing warm-up stretching.

The writer is the president of the Wellton

Bone & Joint Hospital.