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Treatment Options for Knee and Hip Pain
Dr. Naseem Beauchman discusses treatment options for knee and hip pain and discomfort.
Featured Speaker:
Dr. Beauchman understands how important an active lifestyle is and plans to incorporate his extensive training into the treatment of his patients so that they can “get back to work, sports, and life.”
He completed medical school at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Ct. and continued his education by completing his Orthopedic Surgical Residency at Howard University in Washington DC. He furthered his training by completing his Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas. While in Texas he was the assistant team physician for the professional sports teams the Houston Texans, Houston Rockets, and the Houston Astros.
Naseem Beauchman, MD
Naseem Beauchman, MD is bringing his passion for athletics and excellent surgical skills in Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine to Merced where he will offer individualized care for a wide range of patients including high school and college athletes to those considering joint replacement. Dr. Beauchman will be practicing the latest techniques in arthroscopic surgery for joint preservation, cartilage restoration, ligament reconstruction, instability repairs, and joint reconstruction of the shoulders, hips, and knees.Dr. Beauchman understands how important an active lifestyle is and plans to incorporate his extensive training into the treatment of his patients so that they can “get back to work, sports, and life.”
He completed medical school at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Ct. and continued his education by completing his Orthopedic Surgical Residency at Howard University in Washington DC. He furthered his training by completing his Sports Medicine Fellowship at the Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas. While in Texas he was the assistant team physician for the professional sports teams the Houston Texans, Houston Rockets, and the Houston Astros.
Transcription:
Treatment Options for Knee and Hip Pain
Host: As a person gets older, it's common to have some sort of joint pain, especially in the knees and hips. So, let's talk about knee and hip pain and find out what are the treatment options available with Dr. Naseem Beauchman, an Orthopedic Surgeon at Dignity Health. Dr. Beauchman, thank you so much for your time. It is great to talk with you. So, I know knee and hip pain is very common, as I mentioned. Who is most at risk to get knee and hip pain?
Naseem Beauchman, MD (Guest): Well, it's usually a couple of patient populations. One is kind of the young, what we call weekend warrior, right? The 30 or40 year old male or female who aspires to be their 18, 19 year old self again and goes out on the weekend and does some of the CrossFit activities that we see or Ironman or playing some pickup sports and find out quickly that they don't have the same 18 or a 19 year old tissue that they once had and can suffer an injury to both the knee and back.
And I would say the other kind of patient population that we routinely see is patients who are 65 and older, who'd kind of start to have some of the degenerative changes to their joint, like osteoarthritis. And so, those are kind of the two main populations and patients that are kind of at risk. One, those who are athletes who are in their middle age category and patients who are elderly in age and are starting to get some of the degenerative changes in their joints.
Host: Right. So, in either camp, the weekend warrior or people that are over 65 and entering into that arthritis phase, if you will; when should we go see an orthopedist?
Dr. Beauchman: I would hope most patients have a pretty good relationship with their primary care physician. And if you don't have one, you should make sure you have a good one because we work very closely with the primary care doctors and for the most part, the first doctor, you should kind of give a call, s your primary care physician and they will usually assess you. And if they assessed that whatever issue you have, is something that will likely not get better with a little icing and rest and may require the expertise of an orthopedic surgeon; then they'll usually refer you. I will say in my experience, most of the things that we see, kind of aches and pains, get better in about six weeks or so, right? So, if you've done something where you twisted your knee or your back kind of goes out and you kind of give it some time and it's getting close to four to six weeks after you've done something and it's not significantly better; that generally is something that needs to probably be assessed by either your primary care doctor or an orthopedic surgeon.
Host: So, say you're at the six week mark, it's not getting better. So, you go in and have it checked. And it's diagnosed and there is something wrong. What are the treatment options available then? What is the progression of treatment?
Dr. Beauchman: Sure. So, usually we'll kind of start with your run of the mill radiograph or an x-ray. That's just a test that's looking at the bones, and based upon the relationships with those bones, we can make determinations about what's going on in the joints. And obviously we're looking for fractures and things of those nature. Now we also will do a very thorough physical exam and make sure that the joints that are stable and that there's no kind of neurological symptoms or reflex problems, because those could be indicative of a much more serious problem. Then, if we kind of see something on those tests that are more worrisome, than we can get MRIs and scans and stuff like that. I will say just to kind of, put people at ease, most of the time when you go to your doctor or your surgeon, you're not going to end up needing surgery, right? I think there's some fear about going to see an orthopedic surgeon because that surgeon word is in there. And you think if I go see the surgeon, he's going to tell me I need surgery. I don't want surgery. So, most of the people I see don't need surgery. And if you have an ache or a pain, but are anxious about having something aggressive done about it; remember, you get to make the decision about what treatments get done. We just give you as much information as possible. So, those are kind of the next steps. We get a few of the basic tests and run some exams and of go from there.
Host: So, good to hear that most of the time surgery won't be needed. So, then generally physical therapy will take care of these types of injuries?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. We have a great relationship with our physical therapists and people sometimes think of physical therapy and say, hey, you know, I'm a pretty active person. I walk, I get on the Elliptical. I don't need therapy. I don't know what that's going to do. We send our professional athlete patients to physical therapy. Physical therapy is not about being in shape. It's about exercising, stretching, working out and stimulating particular muscle groups around particular joints to get your joint better and to get your pain better. They do massage therapy. They do ultrasound, they do all kinds of innovative, therapies to kind of help with your pain and your soreness and your swelling and your stiffness. And so, yeah, physical therapy is one of the tools that we use. There are medications that we can prescribe that can help you get back faster that are not necessarily narcotics or anything like that, but kind of anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medications.
There are injections that we may use. So, there are all kinds of non- surgical modalities at our disposable to help get you back to being active and relieve the pain that you're having.
Host: Okay. So, that's really good to know. So, if a more invasive procedure is needed, you talked about injections, even medications. And then I would imagine surgery, at times, is the necessary treatment option. Is that right?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. There are just some things in the body that unfortunately don’t heal very well. If you're a younger athlete and you tear your ACL, unfortunately, that's not a ligament that heals very well on its own. And so we've developed over the years, very sophisticated procedures to give you a new ACL or to give you a brand new knee when your knee starts to get arthritic. We have knee replacements at our disposal, where you, can implant a brand new knee and so, technology's come a long way. A lot of these things are, surgeries we've been doing for decades and are tried and true and have a very good results. But once again, they are kind of usually our last resort. There are very few things that you walk into your orthopedist office outside of really bad broken bones, where we kind of say, all right, we're going to go straight to the operating room here. We usually try some other things first. And then if we don't get the success or results we're looking for; that's when we'll attempt to surgical modalities and we have some very good safe operations at our disposal.
Host: And that is comforting to know. So, for people that might be nearing that 65 age range and arthritis is starting to set in, is there a way to help prevent arthritis?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. Now look, there are things that I like to say are things that we can control and things that we can't control right? Unfortunately, you don't get to necessarily choose who your genetic parents are right? There is a genetic predisposition to some of these things, and that is unfortunately something that you can't control, but there are a lot of modifiable factors. One of them being smoking, right? So if you smoke, your chance for having pretty bad arthritis as you get older goes up. And so that's something if that's a habit you picked up over the years now, is as good as any time is a good time to quit. Your weight goes into how bad arthritis can be. We've looked at patients who are morbidly obese, who are whether 50, 75, 100 pounds overweight, and their chances of having that arthritis go way up.
Keeping your weight low, vitamin D, calcium. So, there are some supplements that we get in our diet and through medication that can strengthen our remaining cartilage to kind of keep the risk of our arthritis down. And then there are certain exercises that we can do to strengthen the muscles around the joint, to take stress off the joint, to prevent arthritis from progressing. And those usually involve lower impact exercises like yoga and swimming and exercise bicycles, as opposed to kind of running and jumping, which can be very stressful on the joints. So, having a diet that's high in vitamin D and calcium, quitting smoking, keeping your weight low and remaining active lifestyle. Those are all things that, in the longterm can help you significantly with your arthritis. And then unfortunately, if you have a family where there's arthritis everywhere, your chances of having are just going to be a little bit higher than people who don't.
Host: Right. So, that's why it's even more important to follow those steps. Quit smoking, watch your weight, pay attention to vitamin D and calcium, and should really start doing those low impact aerobic type, yoga exercises. Those always help. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Dr. Beauchman, this has really been interesting and fascinating. Many of us are dealing with knee and hip pain. So, this is really an important topic. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
Dr. Beauchman: No problem, Bill. It's been a pleasure.
Host: That's Dr. Naseem Beauchman. And for more information, please visit dignityhealth.org/merced/ortho. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
Treatment Options for Knee and Hip Pain
Host: As a person gets older, it's common to have some sort of joint pain, especially in the knees and hips. So, let's talk about knee and hip pain and find out what are the treatment options available with Dr. Naseem Beauchman, an Orthopedic Surgeon at Dignity Health. Dr. Beauchman, thank you so much for your time. It is great to talk with you. So, I know knee and hip pain is very common, as I mentioned. Who is most at risk to get knee and hip pain?
Naseem Beauchman, MD (Guest): Well, it's usually a couple of patient populations. One is kind of the young, what we call weekend warrior, right? The 30 or40 year old male or female who aspires to be their 18, 19 year old self again and goes out on the weekend and does some of the CrossFit activities that we see or Ironman or playing some pickup sports and find out quickly that they don't have the same 18 or a 19 year old tissue that they once had and can suffer an injury to both the knee and back.
And I would say the other kind of patient population that we routinely see is patients who are 65 and older, who'd kind of start to have some of the degenerative changes to their joint, like osteoarthritis. And so, those are kind of the two main populations and patients that are kind of at risk. One, those who are athletes who are in their middle age category and patients who are elderly in age and are starting to get some of the degenerative changes in their joints.
Host: Right. So, in either camp, the weekend warrior or people that are over 65 and entering into that arthritis phase, if you will; when should we go see an orthopedist?
Dr. Beauchman: I would hope most patients have a pretty good relationship with their primary care physician. And if you don't have one, you should make sure you have a good one because we work very closely with the primary care doctors and for the most part, the first doctor, you should kind of give a call, s your primary care physician and they will usually assess you. And if they assessed that whatever issue you have, is something that will likely not get better with a little icing and rest and may require the expertise of an orthopedic surgeon; then they'll usually refer you. I will say in my experience, most of the things that we see, kind of aches and pains, get better in about six weeks or so, right? So, if you've done something where you twisted your knee or your back kind of goes out and you kind of give it some time and it's getting close to four to six weeks after you've done something and it's not significantly better; that generally is something that needs to probably be assessed by either your primary care doctor or an orthopedic surgeon.
Host: So, say you're at the six week mark, it's not getting better. So, you go in and have it checked. And it's diagnosed and there is something wrong. What are the treatment options available then? What is the progression of treatment?
Dr. Beauchman: Sure. So, usually we'll kind of start with your run of the mill radiograph or an x-ray. That's just a test that's looking at the bones, and based upon the relationships with those bones, we can make determinations about what's going on in the joints. And obviously we're looking for fractures and things of those nature. Now we also will do a very thorough physical exam and make sure that the joints that are stable and that there's no kind of neurological symptoms or reflex problems, because those could be indicative of a much more serious problem. Then, if we kind of see something on those tests that are more worrisome, than we can get MRIs and scans and stuff like that. I will say just to kind of, put people at ease, most of the time when you go to your doctor or your surgeon, you're not going to end up needing surgery, right? I think there's some fear about going to see an orthopedic surgeon because that surgeon word is in there. And you think if I go see the surgeon, he's going to tell me I need surgery. I don't want surgery. So, most of the people I see don't need surgery. And if you have an ache or a pain, but are anxious about having something aggressive done about it; remember, you get to make the decision about what treatments get done. We just give you as much information as possible. So, those are kind of the next steps. We get a few of the basic tests and run some exams and of go from there.
Host: So, good to hear that most of the time surgery won't be needed. So, then generally physical therapy will take care of these types of injuries?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. We have a great relationship with our physical therapists and people sometimes think of physical therapy and say, hey, you know, I'm a pretty active person. I walk, I get on the Elliptical. I don't need therapy. I don't know what that's going to do. We send our professional athlete patients to physical therapy. Physical therapy is not about being in shape. It's about exercising, stretching, working out and stimulating particular muscle groups around particular joints to get your joint better and to get your pain better. They do massage therapy. They do ultrasound, they do all kinds of innovative, therapies to kind of help with your pain and your soreness and your swelling and your stiffness. And so, yeah, physical therapy is one of the tools that we use. There are medications that we can prescribe that can help you get back faster that are not necessarily narcotics or anything like that, but kind of anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medications.
There are injections that we may use. So, there are all kinds of non- surgical modalities at our disposable to help get you back to being active and relieve the pain that you're having.
Host: Okay. So, that's really good to know. So, if a more invasive procedure is needed, you talked about injections, even medications. And then I would imagine surgery, at times, is the necessary treatment option. Is that right?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. There are just some things in the body that unfortunately don’t heal very well. If you're a younger athlete and you tear your ACL, unfortunately, that's not a ligament that heals very well on its own. And so we've developed over the years, very sophisticated procedures to give you a new ACL or to give you a brand new knee when your knee starts to get arthritic. We have knee replacements at our disposal, where you, can implant a brand new knee and so, technology's come a long way. A lot of these things are, surgeries we've been doing for decades and are tried and true and have a very good results. But once again, they are kind of usually our last resort. There are very few things that you walk into your orthopedist office outside of really bad broken bones, where we kind of say, all right, we're going to go straight to the operating room here. We usually try some other things first. And then if we don't get the success or results we're looking for; that's when we'll attempt to surgical modalities and we have some very good safe operations at our disposal.
Host: And that is comforting to know. So, for people that might be nearing that 65 age range and arthritis is starting to set in, is there a way to help prevent arthritis?
Dr. Beauchman: Absolutely. Now look, there are things that I like to say are things that we can control and things that we can't control right? Unfortunately, you don't get to necessarily choose who your genetic parents are right? There is a genetic predisposition to some of these things, and that is unfortunately something that you can't control, but there are a lot of modifiable factors. One of them being smoking, right? So if you smoke, your chance for having pretty bad arthritis as you get older goes up. And so that's something if that's a habit you picked up over the years now, is as good as any time is a good time to quit. Your weight goes into how bad arthritis can be. We've looked at patients who are morbidly obese, who are whether 50, 75, 100 pounds overweight, and their chances of having that arthritis go way up.
Keeping your weight low, vitamin D, calcium. So, there are some supplements that we get in our diet and through medication that can strengthen our remaining cartilage to kind of keep the risk of our arthritis down. And then there are certain exercises that we can do to strengthen the muscles around the joint, to take stress off the joint, to prevent arthritis from progressing. And those usually involve lower impact exercises like yoga and swimming and exercise bicycles, as opposed to kind of running and jumping, which can be very stressful on the joints. So, having a diet that's high in vitamin D and calcium, quitting smoking, keeping your weight low and remaining active lifestyle. Those are all things that, in the longterm can help you significantly with your arthritis. And then unfortunately, if you have a family where there's arthritis everywhere, your chances of having are just going to be a little bit higher than people who don't.
Host: Right. So, that's why it's even more important to follow those steps. Quit smoking, watch your weight, pay attention to vitamin D and calcium, and should really start doing those low impact aerobic type, yoga exercises. Those always help. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Dr. Beauchman, this has really been interesting and fascinating. Many of us are dealing with knee and hip pain. So, this is really an important topic. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
Dr. Beauchman: No problem, Bill. It's been a pleasure.
Host: That's Dr. Naseem Beauchman. And for more information, please visit dignityhealth.org/merced/ortho. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Hello Healthy, a Dignity Health Podcast. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.