How do sports medicine doctors evaluate a knee injury?

Balanced approach: We try to take each individual patient as a whole. We take the history of the injury as well as overall conditioning very seriously, this goes along with the examination of the ligaments, areas or pain/tenderness, and ability to illicit pain (making it hurt in the office). Together, we take this information and apply it to your individual life situation to formulate a treatment plan.

Variable: A combination of observation, exam and imaging.

History, exam: They will ask questions to get the 'story' about the injury to help them get to the diagnosis. They may also ask questions about other joints to see if your knee issue may be associated with biomechanics or possibly be referred from somewhere else. Then they will examine your knee and likely areas above and below. Then they will come up with a diagnosis and tell you how to treat it.

Xrays.: We start with a clinical examination and xrays. Oftentimes that is enough for a doctor to come up with a diagnosis. Sometimes additional information is needed, like an MRI, or sometimes other diagnostic testing.

THE KNEE EXAM: PATIENT HISTORY. Circumstances surrounding the current need for a valuation. Yesterday a previous & ongoing injuries, treatments and surgeries to the knee. EXAM. Visual inspection of the joint with testing of range of motion and joint stability. This includes processing how long and discomfort associated with movement. TESTING. If indicated, plain x-rays, CT scans, MRIs & even ultrasound