Human Session held on 20 Jul 2018.
Dr Henry Chan has performed more than 5,000 knee surgeries till date to help his patients put the spring back in their steps!
Dr Henry answered questions from readers on:
- Common causes of knee pain
- Treatment options for knee pain
- Total knee replacement surgery
- Recovery after knee replacement surgery
Why do my knees randomly buckle?
Hi Rambo,
Our knee ligaments are bands of tough, elastic, connective tissues that help stablise our joints. They prevent our knees from buckling when we play sports, or during our daily activities.
Typically, there are two main causes of “knees buckling”: previous ligament injuries that weren’t diagnosed and weak knee muscles.
How do I know if I need to get a total knee replacement?
Osteoarthritis means the “normal” wear and tear of the joints, and the accompanied inflammation (“itis” means inflammation in Latin, typically presented as pain and swelling).
It comes with aging, but of course, to varying degrees and different severity.
Osteoarthritis itself is not a dangerous disease that will threaten your life or safety per se, so not everybody suffering from osteoarthritis needs to go under the knife to have surgeries.
How can I reduce my knee pain without medication?
Hi Weng Chong,
First of all, we need to find out why you are having persistent knee pain in the first place.
Without finding out the cause, your knee pain will never be resolved and you will have to keep taking strong painkillers like NSAIDs continuously for a prolonged period of time. That's when you might suffer from serious side effects such as kidneys damage, stomach ulcers or heart problem.
Knee pain is so common that it happens to almost everyone at some point of time. However, if the knee pain don't go away within 1-2 weeks, these pains may not be the usual “strain” or “muscle pull”.
How does PRP injection work for knee pain?
Hi Edward,
PRP stands for platelet rich plasma injection. This technique is developed based on the fact that platelets cells in our own blood contains a vast amount of our bodies’ natural growth factors and healing power.
The process of PRP injection is incredibly simple. First, we take some blood from the patient and process the blood in a strict sterile and clean environment. This process takes approximately 15 mins.
The processed plasma (the “liquid” portion of the blood, comprised of around 10-15% of the volume) now contains a high concentration of the platelets cells (hence the word platelet rich plasma), which carries with them all the “goodies” required to heal the injured body parts.
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