Joint Pain Overview

There are many causes of joint pain and any joint in your body can be affected. Knee, shoulder, hips, back, foot, ankles, arms and other joints all have associated problems and symptoms. Some of these can be easily treated, while others that may be signs of more serious problems. Arthritis is the most common cause of joint problems though individuals who are very active many experience joint problems from muscle and ligament related issues.

Some common knee joint pain problems are associated with pain at the side of your knee, at the front of your knee, at the back of your knee or throughout your knee. If you are experience side pain then you have likely torn a ligament or the cartilage ring that surrounds your knee. Frontal and back knee pain can be caused by bursitis, fractures, infection, cysts and arthritis. Many times your knee can give out or begin to feel unstable. This is usually due to ligament or tendon problems, dislocated kneecaps, arthritis, and meniscus tears.

There are many disease and other causes for shoulder joint paint. For young adults that experience shoulder problems, such as dislocation, they will need to build up muscle in their shoulder are to prevent this. Tendonitis and bursitis tend to affect your rotator cuff. Arthritis is common in shoulders and if it does occur will most likely affect those over 50 or persons who have had previous surgeries or injuries.

Hip pain is another common joint pain problem. The work up of this includes physical examination, X-rays, MRI and blood tests. Once the condition has been diagnosed treatment of this depends on the cause. This may include medications, physical therapy and possible surgery.

There are three types of diseases that affect your ankle joints; ankle sprains, chronic sprains and plantar fasciitis. Ankle sprains are associated with joint pain, swelling and a loss of stability. Sprained ankles occur by turning your ankle inward and tearing a ligament in your ankle. If you have many ankle problems you may need to have your ankle bones pinned as one of the bones in your ankle is not connected but simply sits in place. Ankle joint pain issues are most commonly due to injury.

Joint pain that persists after surgical exploration, repair, replacement is common and is amenable to treatment including prescription medication management, physical therapy and interventions, injections into the joint of numbing medication like Lidocaine, steroid injection and injection of lubricants like Synovisc, Hyalgan are especially helpful in arthritic conditions of the knees and hips.