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Writer's pictureDavid Huang

Case study: Knee Pain due to Muscular Issue


The patient had knee issues since NS days, about 20 years ago, and at the time both knees were diagnosed with medial meniscus tear and undergone surgery. The pain improved after surgery and only returned recently, the pain is on the inner side (medial) side of both knee. The orthopedic specialist referred him to physiotherapy, but the pain was still there. The only other route was surgery or knee replacement.


The patient did not want to undergo surgery and so was referred to me by a friend. Upon examination, the calf, hamstring were very tight, the tibia and fibula mobility was low, and the foot was also tight, not much space within the fascia. The patient experience pain when walking and also when getting up from a seated position.


On the first consultation I explained to the patient that with regards to osteoarthritis of the knee, if the pain is due to the friction of the meniscus itself, then TCM may not be able to help much, but if the pain is due to muscular system, then TCM is very suitable. Since both of the lower limbs were so tight, there is a high possibility that his knee pain is due to the muscles around the knee being too tight.


Using acupuncture and manual adjustment, I lowered the tension on both calves and both foot arch, and aligned both foot to their respective SI joints. After just one session, the pain on both knees were reduced significantly. The patient still came back for follow up sessions to further release muscles around the knee joints. This case shows that although there is degeneration in the meniscus, sometimes, the problem is in the soft tissue/muscle around the knee joint, once muscles are released, pain is reduced. In fact, these tight muscle and twisted fascia are what caused the meniscus to be at an incorrect angle and hence degeneration happened at such a young age.

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