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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Treatment For Severe Pain In The Left Knee

MRI taken in Dec (two months after experiencing severe pain on left knee) shows undisplaced subchondral fracture of weight bearing portion of the lateral femoral condyle with surrounding bone marrow oedema. No visible swelling was there any time. It is 4 months since the pain started. Though general walking doesn t give pain; climbing up and down the steps generates pain. How long will it take to fully recover and heal the fracture? No surgery was performed.
posted on Sun, 26 Feb 2017
Twitter Sun, 7 May 2017 Answered on
Twitter Mon, 8 May 2017 Last reviewed on
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Orthopaedic Surgeon,  's  Response
Hi there. Subchondral fracture as such do not always require surgery and they tend to settle over a period of time. What one needs to mainly concerned about here is injury to the cartilage overlying the area where the subchondral fracture has occurred. This can cause pain similar to osteoarthritis. Since you're having pain on climbing stairs its most probably occurring in the patello-femoral region. The fracture would have probably subsided by now. If you are having this pain which is persistent and really limiting your daily activities, you should undergo an arthroscopic examination of the knee joint which can identify these areas of cartilage injury and therapeutic procedures can be performed in the same sittingif required. If the pain is not so bad you can try with conservative measures like losing weight doing physiotherapy like static quadriceps strengthening exercises and knee range of motion exercises.
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Suggest Treatment For Severe Pain In The Left Knee

Hi there. Subchondral fracture as such do not always require surgery and they tend to settle over a period of time. What one needs to mainly concerned about here is injury to the cartilage overlying the area where the subchondral fracture has occurred. This can cause pain similar to osteoarthritis. Since you re having pain on climbing stairs its most probably occurring in the patello-femoral region. The fracture would have probably subsided by now. If you are having this pain which is persistent and really limiting your daily activities, you should undergo an arthroscopic examination of the knee joint which can identify these areas of cartilage injury and therapeutic procedures can be performed in the same sittingif required. If the pain is not so bad you can try with conservative measures like losing weight doing physiotherapy like static quadriceps strengthening exercises and knee range of motion exercises.