The Evolution and Prevalence of Knee Injuries: Repair at What Cost?

Abstract

Knee injuries are a common nuisance in the lives of many active individuals. They can stem from tissue damage, ligament damage or bone and/or cartilage damage. Through the exploration of major knee injuries, prevention and more efficient rehabilitation can be attained. The most common knee injuries are analyzed and each of their main cause is examined in this paper. Orthopaedic surgery techniques are discussed, such as, ACL reconstruction, meniscal resection/meniscectomy and high tibial osteotomy. These surgical techniques have evolved immensely in response to the high occurrence of serious knee injuries in active individuals. Many of these injuries originate from too much torque and/or torsion on the knee joint occurring during sports. The faulty anatomy of the knee joint and the glacial pace of evolution play a much larger role than just prevalence of injuries. The economic cost of major knee injury repairs is far too high in private health care systems, which in turn results in a poorer quality of psychosocial health in those injured and unable to receive the corrective surgeries.