What should I do next for a knee effusion that is still causing pain?

Hi Brandon

Great to hear from you!

Squash is a great sport - used to play it loads when I worked in the UK - but it certainly upset my knees. I can fully empathise with you regarding your pain - as a Sports Physician I have probably experienced most injuries myself and not too long ago managed to injure my own knee too. Needless to say I feel you frustration.

I agree with Dr Sean that you need an assessment and certainly seeing one of my surgical colleagues is an option. The positives of your story are that you are able to walk and it sounds like your pain is mainly with stairs. Important symptoms to consider further are whether your knee feels like it is "giving way" or "locking" i.e. getting stuck.

With many problems, symptoms can improve and with minimal intervention you can be back to normal activities. Patients I see in clinic with knee pain usually benefit from rehabilitation with my physiotherapy colleagues and sometimes I send them for a gait analysis - depending on their presentation.

Your next step should be a thorough clinical assessment. If it looks like you need imaging, such as an MRI, then it would be good to consider this, but if not, starting early rehabilitation is important.

Good luck with your knee and if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

BW

Dr Dinesh

Thank you for your email. From my understanding, you had a knee effusion after playing Squash? Having an effusion after an intense sporting activity is not normal. Having some knee pain is. If you do have a knee effusion, I think the most pertinent thing to do is to find out the cause of the effusion.

This cause would also be the reason why you still have some knee pain now. There are many potential causes, such as cartilage injury or a meniscus injury.

If your knee is still causing you problems, I would strongly recommend that you get your knee checked by an Orthopaedic surgeon.

A thorough physical examination and perhaps some relevant radiological investigations would be needed to identify the cause of the pain. Appropriate management could then be directed towards the problem.

Hope this is useful and helps answers your questions!

Kind regards

Dr Sean Ng

Effusion means that there was "water" accumulation in the joint, and it usually signify that there was some damage in the internal structures of the knee - and that's why the knee was "swollen". I suspect you may have damanged your meniscus as squash is a sport that involes a lot of changing direction under high speed and high force, the meniscus would usually be under a lot of pressure and can be damaged during an intense squash game.

I'd highly recommend you to seek treatment with an Orthopaedic Surgeon and we would do a MRI scan for you to thoroughly investigate the cause of the effusion and the pain and then we can advise you further.

Hope that it clear some doubts for you.

Cheers,

Dr. Henry Chan