Painful knee problem?

Question

My wife has a big problem with her left knee. There are 4 distinctive symptoms... (1) her knee cap sometimes painfully slides toward the outside (left). (2) When she walks up steps, it grinds. (3) When she tries to go for a fast walk up our hill to exercise, it "clicks" with every step. (4) Sometimes something "pulls" behind her knee which makes bending it very painful & nearly impossible. What the heck could the problem be? She will be making an appointment with a specialist Monday... I'm asking this question here so maybe she'll have some suggestions for the doctor. Any knowledgeable input would be appreciated. Thanx.

Answer 1

Based on the information that you've given, it sounds like it could be a number of things. The ''shifting'' of her knee cap could be as simple as a muscle imbalance in her quadricep muscles (the muscles of the thigh). Sometimes when the outer muscles (VLO and VIO) are stronger than the inside muscles (the VMO), the knee cap is pulled in the direction of the stronger muscles.  The clicking and grinding under her knee cap (unless she has had a significant injury to her knee earlier in life) is most likely a chronic condition known as chondromalacia patellae.  It is when the cartilage on the underside of the knee cap (or patella) has become rough and does not glide smoothly through the groove of the femoral condyles (part of your thigh bone). There are some simple exercises that help most people aleviate this pain or physical therapy may be required.  If it is severe enough, the physician may suggest a simple arthroscopic surgery to shave off the rough portion of the cartilage.  

If she is seeing an orthopedist, there should be no problem in figuring out how to relieve some of her pain.  Some home exercises may be all she needs! Hope this information helped. If you need some more, I'm sure you could look these things up on google or yahoo.