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The Truth About Knee Pain
Describing knee osteoarthritis and why it becomes so painful.
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Learn more about Brad Webb, DO
Brad Webb, DO
Brad Webb, DO graduated magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and was accepted to the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. He then graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center with a Masters in Physician Assistant Studies where he was awarded a Regents Scholarship. He worked as a Physician Assistant prior to medical school and helped to develop the first Tele-Medicine Clinic within the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the VA. He then received his medical degree with honors from A.T. Still University.Learn more about Brad Webb, DO
Transcription:
The Truth About Knee Pain
Deborah Howell (Host): Welcome. This is the Bryan Health Podcast. I'm your host, Deborah Howell. And today we're discussing arthritis of the knee, something that becomes more prevalent as we age and engage in sports activities. Joining me is Dr. Brad Webb, a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, Fellowship trained in adult reconstruction and total joints in affiliation with Bryan Medical Center. Dr. Webb, what a pleasure to have you with us today.
Brad Webb, DO (Guest): Thanks for having me on today. It's been a pleasure.
Host: Great. Now, before we get into the nuts and bolts of treatment, can you tell us what knee osteoarthritis is?
Dr. Webb: Yes. Knee osteoarthritis is really the breakdown, a little bit of wear and tear in the knee joint. All of our knees are covered in cartilage, which allows our knees to move and glide smoothly. Well, when that surface starts to wear down and break down, like anything over time, it starts to become painful. And that breakdown of the cartilage is what we refer to as osteoarthritis. So, it's really kind of a wear and tear breakdown that has multiple factors related to it. But what we refer to as osteoarthritis.
Host: More of the fun of aging. Right?
Dr. Webb: Yep. That is correct.
Host: And why is it so painful?
Dr. Webb: It's painful for a multitude of reasons. A lot of it is what we refer to as osteoarthritis as more of a wear and tear, there is an inflammatory component and our body releases a lot of painful inflammatory markers, which cause pain. And that leads to a lot of the pain. It's also because when you get rid of this cushioning in our knee, we start to get more bone on bone wear meaning the bones will articulate each other and create friction and more swelling, and this also leads to more pain.
Host: Who's most likely to get knee arthritis?
Dr. Webb: It's kind of all over the gamut. There's multiple factors. It is aging, individuals just through time, heavy labor jobs, as well as injuries, whether they were younger sport injuries or traumatic injuries, kind of everybody is at a risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee.
Host: No one gets away.
Dr. Webb: No, we do not.
Host: So, what are the next steps once you find out you have knee arthritis?
Dr. Webb: The next steps of knee arthritis, especially really, depending on what stage you are by the time you finally get diagnosed, really a lot of it has to deal with kind of some non-operative managements and some of the biggest things that are recommended through the literature and everything are starting what we say, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like your ibuprofen, Aleve, and then there's some prescription ones as well. There's also what we talk to as activity modification. Having your physician and therapist educate you about things, what to, and what not to do. And then if need be, there's other things like weight loss programs, there are, injections in the knee. So, there's various different types of treatment options before you even get to what we always talk about and people hear is total joints and getting the joint replaced.
Host: Can you tell us a little bit more about some of those various treatments options?
Dr. Webb: Yeah. And the treatment options really, it's pretty straightforward and simple. You kind of go down a path, whether you're going a non-operative treatment form or an operative treatment form, and it's really based on what level is your arthritis and how much is it affecting your quality of life, as well as simple activities of daily living. And now we always like to start people in non-operative treatment and a lot of that consists of activity modification, physical therapy, and, or a series of possible injections, which may relate from steroid injections in the knee to other things that may help, which are related to as Viscosupplementation.
Host: That's a mouthful. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Dr. Webb: Yes. And so, though the literature's kind of been all over the place in terms of knee injections and their benefits, anecdotally we see it all the time; people get great relief whether those injections may be steroid injections into the knee to help decrease some of the inflammation, which is main driver of the pain and discomfort.
Or depending on the various stage of your osteoarthritis, Viscosupplementation injections are what we refer to as hyaluronate acid injections. Sometimes the old term people would call them rooster comb injections. Those are injected into the knee to kind of help, create a little bit more of a fluid film, help decrease some of the friction, add just a little bit more padding into the knee to help decrease some of the pain and discomfort.
Host: Sounds great. I'd love to know a little bit more about the team at Bryan Health.
Dr. Webb: So, Bryan Health and our team of physicians have been working well to help develop a program that kind of makes our non-operative or even operative treatment of osteoarthritis, very streamlined in terms of our physical therapy. The teams put together an education for educating you about osteoarthritis and then even more the steps when we finally get to surgery, the plan for surgery, the team in the OR and everybody's kind of a nice big team approach, directed at each person's care.
Host: Sure. I should ask you the signs and symptoms of knee arthritis.
Dr. Webb: They're kind of varied from a lot of people, but most of the signs and symptoms of knee arthritis are pain, especially with activity, pain with deep flexion of the knee. So, getting from a sitting to a standing position or trying to kneel down, or start to become more painful and sometimes almost darn right, difficult, sometimes difficult to get off the ground once you're kneeling. People will start to experience swelling in their knee. So, the knees will start to swell up and they didn't have any kind of injury or fall. And so they seem kind of confused, why is their knees starting to swell up? Pain at night is another big factor. So, people start to describe, well, I start to have a lot of pain at night. I have difficulty falling asleep due to my knee pain. All those are varying symptoms that people experience with knee arthritis.
Host: Well, this has been such good information, Dr. Webb and so important for all of us to hear. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Dr. Webb: I appreciate the opportunity to sit down and visit and just to help educate people about osteoarthritis. It's kind of one of these conditions that's becoming more and more prevalent as we're starting to have more and more people reach that aging population.
Host: Well, it sounds like you have some answers for us and that's a good thing.
Dr. Webb: Yes, it is.
Host: And that wraps up this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. Thanks for joining us. For more information or to get connected with one of our providers, head over to our website at bryanhealth.org. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Bryan Health podcasts. I'm Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.
The Truth About Knee Pain
Deborah Howell (Host): Welcome. This is the Bryan Health Podcast. I'm your host, Deborah Howell. And today we're discussing arthritis of the knee, something that becomes more prevalent as we age and engage in sports activities. Joining me is Dr. Brad Webb, a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, Fellowship trained in adult reconstruction and total joints in affiliation with Bryan Medical Center. Dr. Webb, what a pleasure to have you with us today.
Brad Webb, DO (Guest): Thanks for having me on today. It's been a pleasure.
Host: Great. Now, before we get into the nuts and bolts of treatment, can you tell us what knee osteoarthritis is?
Dr. Webb: Yes. Knee osteoarthritis is really the breakdown, a little bit of wear and tear in the knee joint. All of our knees are covered in cartilage, which allows our knees to move and glide smoothly. Well, when that surface starts to wear down and break down, like anything over time, it starts to become painful. And that breakdown of the cartilage is what we refer to as osteoarthritis. So, it's really kind of a wear and tear breakdown that has multiple factors related to it. But what we refer to as osteoarthritis.
Host: More of the fun of aging. Right?
Dr. Webb: Yep. That is correct.
Host: And why is it so painful?
Dr. Webb: It's painful for a multitude of reasons. A lot of it is what we refer to as osteoarthritis as more of a wear and tear, there is an inflammatory component and our body releases a lot of painful inflammatory markers, which cause pain. And that leads to a lot of the pain. It's also because when you get rid of this cushioning in our knee, we start to get more bone on bone wear meaning the bones will articulate each other and create friction and more swelling, and this also leads to more pain.
Host: Who's most likely to get knee arthritis?
Dr. Webb: It's kind of all over the gamut. There's multiple factors. It is aging, individuals just through time, heavy labor jobs, as well as injuries, whether they were younger sport injuries or traumatic injuries, kind of everybody is at a risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee.
Host: No one gets away.
Dr. Webb: No, we do not.
Host: So, what are the next steps once you find out you have knee arthritis?
Dr. Webb: The next steps of knee arthritis, especially really, depending on what stage you are by the time you finally get diagnosed, really a lot of it has to deal with kind of some non-operative managements and some of the biggest things that are recommended through the literature and everything are starting what we say, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like your ibuprofen, Aleve, and then there's some prescription ones as well. There's also what we talk to as activity modification. Having your physician and therapist educate you about things, what to, and what not to do. And then if need be, there's other things like weight loss programs, there are, injections in the knee. So, there's various different types of treatment options before you even get to what we always talk about and people hear is total joints and getting the joint replaced.
Host: Can you tell us a little bit more about some of those various treatments options?
Dr. Webb: Yeah. And the treatment options really, it's pretty straightforward and simple. You kind of go down a path, whether you're going a non-operative treatment form or an operative treatment form, and it's really based on what level is your arthritis and how much is it affecting your quality of life, as well as simple activities of daily living. And now we always like to start people in non-operative treatment and a lot of that consists of activity modification, physical therapy, and, or a series of possible injections, which may relate from steroid injections in the knee to other things that may help, which are related to as Viscosupplementation.
Host: That's a mouthful. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Dr. Webb: Yes. And so, though the literature's kind of been all over the place in terms of knee injections and their benefits, anecdotally we see it all the time; people get great relief whether those injections may be steroid injections into the knee to help decrease some of the inflammation, which is main driver of the pain and discomfort.
Or depending on the various stage of your osteoarthritis, Viscosupplementation injections are what we refer to as hyaluronate acid injections. Sometimes the old term people would call them rooster comb injections. Those are injected into the knee to kind of help, create a little bit more of a fluid film, help decrease some of the friction, add just a little bit more padding into the knee to help decrease some of the pain and discomfort.
Host: Sounds great. I'd love to know a little bit more about the team at Bryan Health.
Dr. Webb: So, Bryan Health and our team of physicians have been working well to help develop a program that kind of makes our non-operative or even operative treatment of osteoarthritis, very streamlined in terms of our physical therapy. The teams put together an education for educating you about osteoarthritis and then even more the steps when we finally get to surgery, the plan for surgery, the team in the OR and everybody's kind of a nice big team approach, directed at each person's care.
Host: Sure. I should ask you the signs and symptoms of knee arthritis.
Dr. Webb: They're kind of varied from a lot of people, but most of the signs and symptoms of knee arthritis are pain, especially with activity, pain with deep flexion of the knee. So, getting from a sitting to a standing position or trying to kneel down, or start to become more painful and sometimes almost darn right, difficult, sometimes difficult to get off the ground once you're kneeling. People will start to experience swelling in their knee. So, the knees will start to swell up and they didn't have any kind of injury or fall. And so they seem kind of confused, why is their knees starting to swell up? Pain at night is another big factor. So, people start to describe, well, I start to have a lot of pain at night. I have difficulty falling asleep due to my knee pain. All those are varying symptoms that people experience with knee arthritis.
Host: Well, this has been such good information, Dr. Webb and so important for all of us to hear. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Dr. Webb: I appreciate the opportunity to sit down and visit and just to help educate people about osteoarthritis. It's kind of one of these conditions that's becoming more and more prevalent as we're starting to have more and more people reach that aging population.
Host: Well, it sounds like you have some answers for us and that's a good thing.
Dr. Webb: Yes, it is.
Host: And that wraps up this episode of Bryan Health Podcast. Thanks for joining us. For more information or to get connected with one of our providers, head over to our website at bryanhealth.org. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Bryan Health podcasts. I'm Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a terrific day.