Diagnosis
Though the world has made significant progresses in the world of medical industry, history still persists to be one of the most preferred ways of pain diagnosis. If you are visiting the doctor for a knee pain, he may ask a lot of questions about your past actions that may have caused or influenced the pain in your knees. The doctor may ask for the location of the pain, how it feels or about the frequency of the pain. He may want to know about any accidents or injuries that may have left some underlying cause to initiate the pain. There are a lot of other questions that your doctor may ask you while taking your history.
Physical examinations for pain diagnosis:
- You may be required to get disrobed as the doctor will be checking your knee in full exposure. It is advisable to wear shorts while going for the appointment.
- The doctor will look for the tender spot on the knee. He may inspect the knee by hand or use his tools to press around the knee to find the exact location of the pain.
- Apart from that, physicians often perform some special moves to check the pressure on the tendons, ligaments and menisci and based on the joint findings, determine the integrity for each result.
CT Scans, USG, X-Ray and other tests:
X-Ray
Based on the patient history, the doctor may prefer to take an X-Ray view of the affected area. It can be used to determine fractures, cracks and bone dislocations that may be causing the pain. It can also be used to check on the knee condition for cases of arthritis as well as for joint spaces that are small or abnormally large.
CT scan
Though not often used, doctors may ask for a CT scan report of the affected area. This can help in forming precise definition of the pain causing deformity.
Though these are the best options to diagnose bone conditions, both X-Ray and CT scan rank very bad when it comes to diagnosing conditions of the soft tissue structures. If the doctor wants to check the areas of menisci, tendon or ligaments these two are not the options at all.
MRI
This is one of the best ways used to obtain precise evaluation of the soft tissues in the knee region such as the tendons and the ligaments. This method uses a huge magnet to generate the portions of the knee in a three dimensional image.
Tests by fluid extractions
There is fluid filled in between the spaces of the knee. If there are indications of infections resulting from any reason, or crystalline arthritis, the doctor may order to extract some fluid from the region with a needle and analyze it to obtain precise diagnosis. It can be observed under the microscope to look for crystals or for infections from bacteria or pus found in the fluid. Blood tests may also be used by the physician if required to check the indications of knee pain caused due to diabetes, uric acid, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Arthroscopy
It may be required if you are suffering from chronic knee pain. An orthopedic surgeon can choose to carry this out that involves placing a telescope with optic fibers inside the knee joint through surgery. An Arthroscope attached to the camera is used to relay the obtained images to a video monitor. This can be used to check on minute particles in the joint area or to get a closer view of any damage in the cartilage or menisci tissues. The surgeon can also choose to use it for treating damage by removing damaged particles such as torn cartilage from the joint.
