 Poster: A snowHead
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i'm about to go on a skiing holiday, but am a bit worried about the condition of my knee....
specifically,I'm wondering about the type of knee support i should use
about 10 years ago i injured my knee playing hockey (no, not the butch, manly kind of hockey that appeals to snow heads, but the wimpy field hockey!)
It seems the injusry was caused by twisting and the diagnosis was a 'coronary ligament strain'. Thought this was a little contentious - nothing showed up on the MRI (they are too fine to see) and the diagnosis actually came from me telling the physio how rubbing along the bone line caused a pain a bit like pressing a bruise.
After physio it got better and was able run again after about 6 months, and returned to playing hockey a year later - all be it with a massive knee support.
mostly my knees are ok - just every now and then i do somehting that makes it sore for a while again. usually it's when i do something where i twist my knee
I've been very suspicious of the coronary ligament diagnosis and wondered if there is a cartilidge issue as well. sometimes, it does feel as though i've just clicked somethign out of place and it take a few days to click back in (e.g. a loose flap on the cartilidge)
however, when I looked up coroanary ligaments, it does seem like their roll is very much more one of preventign rotation of the knee - so it would fit with the idea that twisting is the problem.
I see a lot of knee braces for skiing that look very study and practically seem to be an exoskeleton, gripping the leg above and below the knee and providing its own hinge. However, when i read the descriptions of them, they seem to be for cruxiate or latteral ligament support. and when i think about the forces involved, i think that really they are probably not limiting rotation so much.
Can anybody provide qualified medical advice on this, or had the same sort of issue?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hi .
I recognise a subgroup of people with tears to the deep part of the medial collateral ligament.
I published a paper on them a number of years ago. Very rarely these extend to involve the coronary ligament at the back of the knee.
They do not show up on scan but can be identified at arthroscopy if you know what you are looking for.
They tend to give pain on the inside of the knee if the knee is sharply twisted outwards.
If the don't settle with injection i have explored and repaired a small number with some success.
It is no a problem which has much written about and they are rare.
Jonathan Bell
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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thanks jonathan,
but the pain i get its at the *front* - if you imagine looking down my left thigh from above (knee cay straight in front) then the bit where there is pain (when it does go) is 45 degrees clockwise from the kneecap.
or put another way, if the knee cap is 12 oclock and back of the knee 6 oclock, then the pain is about 2 o'clock.
the other week , I went to a fun self defence class at work, was not really trying particularly hard, but did a punch where i twisted a bit on the ball of my foot. there was a sudden sharp pain and then it was like there was a bubble at the point i mentioned that stopped by leg from straightening. (i keep thinking this sounds like cartilidge)
i think my main quetion though is, this seems to be caused by twisting, so is there a tpe of brace that can prevent the twisting?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Doesn't sound like the coronary ligament nor the medial ligament.
Its obviously difficult to be precise without seeing your knee but the site
you say is painful would 9/10 be pain referred from the patella ( Kneecap).
The scan can often be reported as normal with kneecap trouble.
Get another opinion from a physio first of all.
Ensure they are knee or at least lower limb specialist
Jonathan Bell
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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yeah ... its a case of finding one that doesn't shrug their shoulders and go 'dunno mate'!!
when the big injury happened years ago, the consultant did all the test for the medial ligaments (you know the bendy sideways stuff) and i think a few other 'standard' tests that revealed nothing.... so he sent me for a scan..... which showed nothing. By then , the physio had diagnosed coronary ligaments based on the fact that tubbing the edge of that bit of bone (I think the edge of the tibial plateu??) in this small area to the right of the kneecap caused a sensation a bit like pressing a bruise.
thing is, it's now feeling ok again so I guess nothing would be diagnosable!
But I'm off sking and i don't want it to pop again in the middle of a slope . as it seems to be twisting that causes the problem , I wondered if there was some sort of support i could get that could prevent the twisting?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I would just make sure you have done a fairly decent strength program.
A simple knee sleeve may make it feel a bit better but i wouldnt spend too much on it
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