Treatments for Knee Pain

At St. Elizabeth Healthcare, we are committed to finding a treatment that helps to relieve your knee pain, once and for all. We know how frustrating it can be when your knee pain holds you back from daily activities and events. Our nationally recognized, award-winning Orthopaedic care offers highly specialized care to our patients, including a number of surgical and non-surgical treatment options for knee pain. Your Orthopaedic team will work with you to develop a customized treatment plan to get your knee pain under control—and to get you back to your active life. 

Nonsurgical Knee Pain Treatments

Nonsurgical treatments can be used singularly or in conjunction with one another. Oftentimes, your physician will prescribe a combination of exercises and physical therapy along with NSAIDS to get the most effective combination of treatments. 

• Exercise and Physical Therapy – improves muscle strength and flexibility; helps to reduce knee pain.
• Anti-inflammatory Medications – non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) help relieve mild to moderate knee pain by reducing inflammation. 
• Injections – A corticosteroid (cortisone shot) can be given directly into the joint to reduce inflammation and pain.

Surgical Knee Pain Treatments 

The St. Elizabeth Total Joint Center offers both inpatient and outpatient surgical options for knee pain. Typically, these options are recommended by your orthopaedic surgeon once the non-surgical treatments are no longer working. These options include: 

• Arthroscopy - A minimally invasive procedure where a small camera is inserted into the knee joint via a small incision. Knee arthroscopy allows for greater visualization of the knee, and repair of many types of pathology. These include lesions of the meniscus (knee cartilage), and injuries to the ligaments.
• Fracture fixation - A surgery to stabilize a fractured patella while the bone heals.
• Tendon / ligament repair or reconstruction - Certain ligaments, such as the AC, MCL and PCL, are essential for knee stability. Repair and reconstruction may be done arthroscopically to restore knee stability.
• Knee resurfacing/partial knee replacement - resurfacing only the diseased part of the knee, leaving the patient’s healthy bone and surrounding tissue. 
• Same day total knee replacement surgery - patients undergo the total knee replacement surgery but are discharged later that day to recover at home. 
• Inpatient knee replacement surgery - patents undergo the total knee replacement surgery but spend one-two nights recovering at the hospital before being discharged to recover at home. 
• Mako Robotic-Arm Assisted Surgery - the patient’s orthopaedic surgeon works in conjunction with the robotic arm, creating the most accurate knee replacement option available. 

Schedule an Appointment 

Is your knee pain bothering you? Schedule an appointment with our Sports Medicine physicians for a treatment plan tailored to you. Call (859) 212-5600 to make an appointment.

If you haven’t found relief from nonsurgical knee treatments, we can help. For more information on surgical options, please contact us at askortho@stelizabeth.com.