If you live here in beautiful Colorado, there are innumerable ways to be active. Whether it’s mountain biking, hiking, skiing, or playing outdoor sports, there are plenty of ways you can injure your knee. Knee injuries can bring pain, as well as limited function and mobility, keeping you from enjoying everything our state has to offer! 

Does this sound like you or someone you know? If so, our DENVER PHYSICAL THERAPISTS are here to help! Let’s delve into the different kinds of knee-joint specific injuries and how they can occur: 

 ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear– usually caused by abrupt hyperextension of the knee or sudden deceleration 

PCL (Posterior Cruciate Ligament) tear-  usually caused by a blow to a flexed knee or hyperflexion of the knee. 

What if the mechanism of injury was a blow to your kneecap (aka the patella)?

The injuries could be any of the following: 

• Irritation of plica (a fold in the membrane that protects your knee joint) 
• Patellar fracture 
• Bursitis (inflammation of the fluid-filled pads (bursae) that act as cushions at the joints) 
• Infrapatellar (below the kneecap) fat pad irritation 

What if the mechanism of injury was a blow to the outside of the knee? 

The injury is MOST LIKELY a medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear or sprain 

• You could also have a pes anserine strain (this is where the 3 tendons on the inside of the knee are attached to the lower leg) 

Meniscus Injuries– Usually your foot is planted, and you rotate the lower half of your body suddenly.

 What IF you rotate the lower half of your body AND there’s a blow to the outside of your knee? 

Well, this is where you could be very unlucky and injure either your ACL, meniscus or MCL. You could even injure and damage ALL 3!

So what can you do??

Now that you speculate what you may have injured just by the MECHANISM of the injury, let us help you recover and heal. Our well-trained Physical Therapists are some of the BEST PHYSICAL THERAPISTS IN DENVER, and they will help get you on a treatment plan tailored to your diagnosis and recovery timeline. 

Our massage therapists can also help the muscles that are affected to relax and flush out inflammation, expediting the healing process. Contact us here or schedule an appointment today with a DENVER PHYSICAL THERAPIST using the BOOK NOW button at the top of the page! 

*All images from Google Images