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chronic knee pain?

im so worried about my friend..he has had chroinc knee pain for like 3 yrs i think and is only now sorting it out after me naggin at him..the thing is he had a (benign) tumour in his arm, would the pain in his knee which came all of a sudden be of the same nature! im stressing myself out soo much,,can someone make me feel better with good advise please! he is going for an MRI scan next week..but he had an x-ray but they never told him what they saw, would it be serious? and aslo if there was like a tumour would it show up on the x-ray? thanks

Public Comments

1. how old is your friend? i am sure it's not a tumor. the knee is one of the easiest joints to get injured by repetitive use. there are ligament on either side of the joint that connect bone to bone and then the joint itself can deteriorate for no reason or for any number of reasons. remember this is where three bones meet and all that separates them is some cartilage and between the cartilage is a oil substance called synovial fluid. Any breakdown in any of the items I've listed can cause knee pain. Fortunately for you friend most of these things can be corrected with medicine or simple arthroscopic surgery. It may be as simple as some worn down cartilage within the knee joint. The MRI should tell you everything, don't worry

2. Here are a few questions to answer:

Is your friend overweight? Being heavy adds a lot of stress on the knees.

Does your friend have arthritis our gout? Both can cause damage to the joints.

Has your friend experienced a sports injury to his leg, or torn any ligaments?

To answer your question about tumors, yes, tumors will show up as abnormal spots on an X-Ray, and if he does have a tumor, the X-Ray will definitely show it. If it is determined that he does have a tumor, a biopsy (tissue extraction from the infected area)would need to be performed to determine the nature of the tumor and if it is cancerous.

It's also quite possible that he may have a torn ligament in his meniscus (kneecap) and retaining water in his knee (water on the knee), which can be easily treated through minor knee surgery.