The post 5 Most Common Causes of Knee Pain appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.

Thank you to all who attended our NOVEMBER webinar, hosted by Dr. Meredith Warner!

If you missed out, don’t worry. You can watch the recap below of our third seminar all about Diabetic Foot Care:

For this monthly seminar, Dr. Warner shared the basics of Diabetic Foot Care, from what diabetes is, what causes the disease, how it affects your feet, and how you can take care of the health of your feet in your own home. She also discussed the assistance of Medicare and how Medicare patients over 65 can receive in-home care from Dr. Kyle Lindow.

Thank you for attending our monthly seminars this year! We have loved sharing educational topics on health and wellness with you. While we will not be hosting a December seminar, we look forward to sharing our next topic, Stem Cell Therapy, in January.

From our staff and doctors at Warner Orthopedics & Wellness, we wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Stay safe, stay well, and keep your eyes open for the new wellness topics we have in store for 2021.

Relief From Diabetic Foot Pain At Warner Orthopedics & Wellness

At Warner Orthopedics & Wellness, we can help you take care of your diabetic feet. We work closely with your personal physicians and endocrinologist to gather your full diabetic history. Our specialists provide you with optimal care to keep your feet healthy and free of diabetic foot pain.

Contact us today with any questions and to schedule your appointment, and ask how we can work with your Medicare plan for at-home care with Dr. Kyle Lindow!!

The post Diabetic Foot Care At Warner Orthopedics & Wellness appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.

Hi, Dr. Warner here –

 

I wanted to talk to you today about knee arthritis as it is one of the most common conditions that send people to me, a physician and orthopedic surgeon. I’m not sure if you knew this, but the number of knee replacement surgeries performed is projected to increase astronomically as the population ages.

Let’s begin by talking about the knee and knee arthritis.

So, What Exactly Is the Knee?

The knee is basically a joint in your lower leg that is between the thigh bone (the femur) and the tibia (the shinbone). This joint is covered by the kneecap or a sesamoid bone embedded within two tendinous structures. This is a tendon to the quadriceps muscle, and then this is a tendon to the tibia.

What a sesamoid does is make the quadricep more efficient by changing the lever arm – the line of pull and the vector of force of a quad when you tighten your thigh muscle pulls up on this knee cap. When you pull up on the quad, that’s when you kick or swing through in your gait or straighten your leg, a movement made efficient by the kneecap.

There is one downside, however. Due to physics and the natural movement of the body against gravity, when you have a massive force pulling upwards, the way the body works in gravity, you end up with a resultant force that pushes in and compresses the kneecap to the femur. When you have abnormal compression and abnormal rubbing, that’s when you can potentially develop wear-and-tear arthritis.

What Is Arthritis?

Arthritis is a breakdown of the cartilaginous surface of a joint. Each of the ends of these bones is coated in cartilage, or a type of collagen that has a very, very low friction coefficient that allows smooth, beautiful movements in the human body. You have a number of places the cartilage can break down. It can break down the patella, at the femur, and on the tibia. The meniscus, a semicircular piece of gristle, helps to protect the tibia by cushioning the knee and providing rotational control and sagittal control.

One thing we’ve learned over the years is if you take out any of the meniscus, you are basically making a self-fulfilling prophecy of arthritis come true. We’re trying more and more often to preserve the meniscal tissue.

What does that go back to? I think the best way to treat knee arthritis is to treat it non-operatively. We know that the surgeries can be very good, well-researched, and have decent outcomes – but surgery is surgery, and you want to avoid it if you can because there are always complications.

How Can You Prevent Knee Arthritis?

One of the ways to avoid developing arthritis is with physical therapy. There are millions of ways to make the knee feel better through targeted physical therapy, stretching, fascial plane movements, myofascial releases, yoga, and more.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is another way to treat this naturally using your own blood. We process it in a certain manner and end up with a concentrated amount of platelets and white cells. These hold growth factors in vesicles or bags within the cell called alpha granules. They release platelet-derived growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, bone morphogenic proteins, a lot of pro-healing and anti-inflammatory cytokines, and more. So, the platelets are wonderful, natural healing components and are, in fact, the first stage of all healing in the human body. Using PRP therapy, we can harness this power and inject it directly into your knee.

A recent meta-analysis in January of this year looked at all of the recent literature of platelet rich plasma for knee and hip arthritis. It found that PRP injections are actually better than any other injections used for short-term (and potentially long-term) pain relief and function improvement.

You don’t want to hurt, and you want to do more. So that’s our job is to get you there with the least amount of trauma, invasiveness, and risk possible.

Again, knee arthritis is very common but also very treatable. Although there is no cure for arthritis, we are equipped to efficiently treat the symptoms.

What Are Your Next Steps?

If you are suffering from arthritis pain or knee pain, we want to help. Contact us today at Warner Orthopedics & Wellness to learn more about PRP injections and to schedule a consultation. We’ll help you get back to feeling better and pain-free in no time.

The post Dr. Meredith Warner On Knee Arthritis appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.

Thank you to all who attended our October webinar, hosted by Dr. Meredith Warner!

If you missed out, don’t worry. You can watch the recap below of our third seminar all about Knee Arthritis and Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP):

Dr. Warner shared the common causes of knee arthritis and what causes the joint to degenerate and become painful, as well as what you might be doing that is inadvertently making matters worse. 

She went on to discuss PRP Therapy injections and how they can be used to help you find powerful, effective relief from joint pain by utilizing your very own platelet-rich plasma!

One attendee will have the opportunity to get their own platelet-rich plasma injection from Warner Orthopedics & Wellness. Their treatment and recovery journey will be documented for your education.

We love sharing these educational seminars with you and look forward to our next seminar, coming in November!

Relief From Arthritis & Joint Pain At Warner Orthopedics & Wellness

Don’t just sit back and let joint pain take control of your life. Our experts at Warner Orthopedics & Wellness can help you to find the most effective methods of relief for your needs to help improve your overall quality of life.

Contact us today with any questions and to schedule your appointment.

The post Find Relief From Knee Arthritis At Warner Orthopedics & Wellness appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.

Osteoarthritis of the knee is one of the most disabling conditions in the world. It is present in about 20-30% of the elderly population (over 65-years-old). With the aging of the population and the increasing number of people working longer, this is expected to increase. Also, most individuals are more active now than ever. The pain of arthritis is long-term and can render one unable to do even basic daily activities.

There are many non-operative treatments available for chronic knee pain from arthritis. These treatments range from braces to hyaluronic acid injections. However, many physicians recommend a replacement of the natural knee with a metal and plastic one when other treatments don’t work.

Many people do not want to undergo the trauma and expense of a total knee replacement. Some people are not healthy enough to undergo such a surgery. Some individuals wish to delay such a surgery for any number of reasons. Also, 20-30% of patients still have pain and disability even after having a total knee replacement.

There is a way to treat the pain without replacing the knee joint. By blocking the sensory nerves that provide the pain signal from the knee to the brain, the pain can be treated. First, the nerves must undergo a temporary block to see if the pain relief is adequate. Then, a minor procedure is completed that prevents the nerves from working to create a pain signal. The pain is effectively gone. This has been shown to provide a significant amount of pain relief in a number of scientific studies. While there is no cure for arthritis, there is a potential treatment for the pain of arthritis of the knee.

The nerve block is done in the clinic. An area around the kneecap undergoes a series of injections with a medication that numbs the nerves. If this proves to provide enough relief, the next stage of treatment occurs.

The patient with the painful arthritic knee is mildly sedated, and numbing medication is injected into the area to provide relief during the procedure. Specialized cannulas and probes are placed around the kneecap in key positions. Each probe is inserted under the skin into an area known to have a sensory nerve. Once positioned, the probes area activated and render the nerves ineffective. The probes utilize radio frequency to produce a minimally invasive heat source that essentially burns the nerve. The surrounding tissue has minimal to no damage due to the design of the probe and the procedural technique.

If successful, this procedure can provide an individual with long-term pain relief without the need for medication.

If you have chronic knee pain from arthritis but are not interested in a replacement at this time, contact Dr. Warner at Warner Orthopedics and Wellness. Dr. Warner can perform this procedure for you at your convenience.

The post A Solution to Arthritic Knee Pain Without Replacement appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.

Change The Position of the Ankle

When a total knee surgeon places a total knee implant, they must consider the position in three planes.  It must be position in the lateral (side-facing), coronal (front-facing) and finally the axial (cross-section) planes.  Often, a position of external rotation in the axial plane is selected to place the patella correctly in its femoral groove.  Sometimes the rotation of the femoral and tibial total knee components changes the rotation of the tibia (shin-bone), ultimately affecting the ankle.

If you have ankle pain or feel that you wear out shoes differently since your total knee replacement, it may be worth seeing a foot and ankle surgeon.

Tendinitis May Develop Due to Changes in Range-of-Motion

People with pre-existing ankle arthritis usually have limited range of motion; the same is true of the knee of course.  Over time, with an arthritic knee and ankle, the walking pattern accommodates to the limits of both joints.  Once the knee is replaced (assuming all goes well), the knee will have a much better range of motion.  This knee range of motion then puts additional stress on the already limited and arthritic ankle.  It is not unusual to develop Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, peroneal tendinitis or posterior tibial tendinitis in the ankle region due to the changes in walking.

Reduced Flexibility in the Hindfoot

Again, total knees will change the alignment of the knee from being either valgus (knock-kneed) or varus (bow-legged),  and change the angle of the ankle in the forward-facing plane.

Because the ankle has changed its angle, the calcaneus (heel bone) must change its relative position.  If an ankle has been in valgus, typically the calcaneus compensates by moving varus.  Conversely, if an ankle has been in varus, the heel will correct by moving into valgus.  The goal of the body is to maintain an overall neutral position of the leg and body relative to the ground.

When the total knee is placed and suddenly the knee is straight (neutral) again, this places the ankle in a different plane. The change is happening along with the tibial rotation change discussed in the first point. The heel bone will need to compensate less but often becomes stiffer due to the new biomechanics of the ankle joint.  A stiff hindfoot will increase midfoot and forefoot pain, contribute to plantar fasciitis and make navigating uneven ground difficult.

All this to say, if you find that you are having more foot and ankle pain after total knee surgery, you should be evaluated. Sometimes a simple custom insert is necessary. Other times, professional physical therapy can help. Injections, massage, and other techniques can reduce the discomfort also. Rarely surgery is required, but it happens.

The post Three Ways a Total-Knee Replacement May Effect an Arthritic Ankle appeared first on Warner Orthopedics.