Knee Pain - Sacramento Ortho Sports & Shoulder

Knee pain is one of the most common reasons people see an orthopedic specialist. Most knee pain improves with non-surgical care, but pain that persists beyond a few weeks, follows an injury, or limits what you can do day to day deserves a proper diagnosis rather than another round of guessing.

This page explains when to see a knee specialist, how the knee is evaluated, and what treatment options exist — from activity modification through to surgery. If you are trying to understand what is causing your pain in the first place, our detailed guide to the causes and symptoms of knee pain covers that in more depth.

When to see a knee specialist

Book an evaluation if any of the following apply:

Pain that has lasted more than four to six weeks without steady improvement
A specific injury — a twist, pop, or blow to the knee, particularly during sport
The knee gives way, catches, locks, or feels unstable
Swelling that keeps returning, or swelling that appeared within hours of an injury
You cannot put weight on the leg, or cannot fully straighten or bend the knee
Pain that wakes you at night or is no longer controlled by rest and over-the-counter medication

Sudden severe pain with obvious deformity, or a knee that cannot bear any weight at all, should be assessed urgently rather than scheduled as a routine appointment.

How knee pain is diagnosed

An accurate diagnosis comes from the history and the physical examination first, with imaging used to confirm rather than to go looking. A typical evaluation includes:

History — how the pain started, what makes it worse, whether the knee has ever given way, and what you need to get back to
Examination — assessing range of motion, alignment, swelling, ligament stability, and the specific structures that reproduce your pain
X-rays — to assess joint space, alignment, and arthritis; usually taken standing so the joint is loaded
MRI — where a soft-tissue injury is suspected, such as a meniscus tear, ligament tear, or cartilage damage

The point of the workup is to distinguish between problems that respond well to non-surgical care and those where waiting makes the eventual outcome worse — an unstable knee after an ACL tear, or a meniscus tear pattern that is repairable now but may not be in six months.

Treatment options

Non-surgical care

Most knee pain is managed without an operation. Depending on the diagnosis, that may include structured physical therapy targeting the specific deficit rather than generic exercises, activity and load modification, anti-inflammatory medication, bracing or taping, and injection therapy.

Injection options include corticosteroid injections for inflammatory pain, hyaluronic acid (gel) injections for osteoarthritis, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in selected cases. Each suits a different problem, and none of them is a universal answer.

Surgical care

Surgery is appropriate when the structural problem causing the pain will not resolve on its own and is limiting function — a torn ACL in someone who needs a stable knee, a mechanically symptomatic meniscus tear, recurrent patellar instability, or a cartilage defect. Most of these procedures are performed arthroscopically, through small incisions.

If you have been told you need a knee replacement, it is worth understanding the full range of options first — we cover this in detail in our guide to alternatives to knee replacement surgery.

Knee conditions we treat

Knee pain is a symptom, not a diagnosis. These are the specific conditions behind most of it:

Next step

If knee pain is limiting what you can do, an evaluation will tell you what is actually wrong and what your realistic options are. Call 916-732-3005 or request an appointment.