Doing a project about the knee? This slide provides you with all the information you need to know about the knee. From the anatomy to numerous knee injuries, all your information is here.

1. Everything You Wanted To Know
About The Knee
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http://www.ssoc.co.za

2. The Knee
…
What exactly is the knee? According to the professionals, the knee is
one of the largest and complex joints that can be found in the body.
Your joint in the knee essentially joins the thigh with the shin bone. The
smaller bone that runs along the shin, or tibia, and the kneecap are the
other bones that make up this joint. While the knee plays a
fundamental role in the movement of the leg, not having change much
during our evolution, it is extremely vulnerable to both injury and
osteoarthritis.

3. The Anatomy of the Knee …
The knee is essentially a “hinge joint”
composed of three functional
components. This includes. The patella
(kneecap), the patellar groove and the
medial and lateral femorotibial. The
latter, links the femur to the tibia, which
is considered to be the main bone of
the lower leg. The knee is an important
joint in the body, playing an essential
role in the movement and carrying the
weight of the body. While the various
components of the knee are essential
to the movement of the knee, the knee
bones are connected to the leg muscles
through tendons. The ligaments, or a
short and flexible bang of fibrous
connective tissue, has the job of joining
the knee bones, providing the knee
with stability.
Figure 1.1

4. What do these ligaments and tendons do?
• (It is essential that you take a look at Figure 1.1 to
fully understand)
• The anterior cruciate ligament is responsible for
preventing the femur from sliding backward onto the
tibia, or the tibia forward onto the femur.
• The posterior cruciate ligament prevents the femur
from sliding forward onto the tibia, while it also looks
to stop the tibia from sliding backward onto the
femur.
• The medial and lateral collateral ligaments prevents
the femur sliding from side to side.
• While the ligaments are all busy doing this hard work,
two pieces of cartilage called the medial and lateral
menisci acts as shock absorbers between the allimportant femur and tibia.

5. Injury to the knee
• When experiencing pain in the
knee, it is often caused by
trauma, misalignment or
degeneration; with conditions
such as arthritis being prevalent.
While a painful knee can often
be treated at home with ice and
rest, more serious injuries
require surgical care. One of the
most common knee injury is
known as patellofemoral
syndrome. While knee pain can
occur in young individuals, age is
usually a contributing factor to
various knee disorders. In older
individuals, pain in the knee may
arise frequently due to
osteoarthritis.

6. A common condition: Patellogemoral
Syndrome …
A syndrome that is commonly associated to the knee, it is a condition that is
described as pain or discomfort that has originated from contact of the posterior
surface of the patella with the femur. This is a frequently diagnosed condition in
sports medicine clinics.
How does this pain occur? The pain and dysfunction is often a result of abnormal
forces or prolonged repetitive compressive or shearing forces, this is running or
jumping for the common folks, on the patellogemoral joint. This often results in
thinning and softening of the articular cartilage located under the patella, this is
referred to as “bone bruises”. Another cause of this syndrome can be fractures,
internal knee derangement, or bony tumours in or around the knee.
How do they diagnose it? It is essential that you make your way to a medical
professional if you are experiencing any pain emanating from the knee. A simple
diagnoses is performed through eliminating other conditions such as plica
syndrome or patellar tendinitis. There are usually a number of treatments that are
used to treat this syndrome, but most respond well to conservative therapy.

7. Knee Replacement Surgery …
The only time that you might be talking about knee
replacement surgery with your doctor, is when you
are suffering from osteoarthritis. Whether or not
you are contemplating getting knee surgery is
entirely dependent on age, your activity level and
the degree of pain and disability that you are
experiencing. If you’re contemplating whether knee
replacement surgery is something that you need,
this is something that you need to discuss with your
If you’re considering whether knee replacement
surgery is something that you need to think about,
this is something that needs to be discussed and
answered with your orthopaedic surgeon. Surgery
will only be an option when nonsurgical
interventions through medication and various
treatments are unable to alleviate pain. Other
possible signs that you might be heading for a knee
replacement surgery includes, aching in the joints
that are followed by periods of relative relief, pain
after extensive use, loss of mobility or joint stiffness
after periods of rest or inactivity.

8. Various knee injuries that are likely to
occur …
• Many athletes experience
various forms of knee injuries
that occur at one time or
another. This form of injury
usually occurs to the ligaments
of the knee that affect four of
the major ligaments in the knee
including the – anterior cruciate
ligament (ACL), the medial
collateral ligament (MCL) and the
posterior cruciate ligament
(PCL).

9. If you’re looking for more information about the knee and knee injuries, make sure that
you visit http://www.ssoc.co.za/