Medical Questions » Legs Questions » Question No. 571
| Question: | My knee keeps aching, and I can' t sleep or rest comfortably. I am at my wits end. What could cause this problem? |
| Answer: | Any one of several dozen diseases and conditions can cause knee pain, so your question is impossible to answer in definite terms. The most common cause of knee pain is osteoarthritis. This can cause a deep ache that is often worse at rest, but although exercise gives temporary relief, any heavy exercise will make it worse when you do rest.
Treatment will involve anti-inflammatory medications from your doctor, pain-killers, liniments and physiotherapy. As a last resort, surgery to totally replace the knee joint can be undertaken.
Othet causes of knee pain include any sort of injury (eg. falling on your knee), a strain or tear to the ligaments or cartilages in or around the knee, cysts, infections, a mal-aligned knee joint and numerous rarer diseases.
Let your doctor examine and x-ray your knee so that a proper diagnosis can be made. If osteoarthritis is present it will probably show on an X-ray.
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