Course Overview

Knee Pain: The Medial Compartment (Acute and Chronic)

Acute pain, inflammation, and swelling in the medial knee is often experienced after injury or trauma in sports. It may involve sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) or tear to the medial meniscus. From a meridian (jing-luo) perspective, we usually think of the three leg yin meridians – the Spleen, the Kidney, and the Liver. However, medial knee pain should be understood in terms of western orthopedic diagnosis. Your treatment plan, rehabilitation and prognosis for the patient all arise from this assessment. But most importantly, prognosis – what you communicate to the patient – is what is unique to each diagnosis.

Pain, inflammation, swelling, and stiffness of the medial knee, at the joint space, is also seen as a chronic condition. This pain is often due to medial compartment osteoarthritis. Sources suggest that over 30 percent of individuals between the ages of 60 and 90 are affected by this condition in one of the three compartments of the knee. That percentage will likely increase over the next decade, and therefore its inclusion in this webinar. Commonly diagnosed as a Bi syndrome, the three leg yin meridians encompass the medial joint space. Webinar instructor Whitfield Reaves will discuss a very useful technique of “threading the opening of a joint space” in the region of Liver 8.

This series was introduced in 2011, and is based upon single individual sports injuries. Each course provides simple and direct video for first time viewing as well as to increase precision through repetition. Even if you have taken the newer series, Mastering the Treatment of Injury and Pain, this old series is still an excellent resource for review and is filled with clinical gems.

Course Objectives

• To perform the valgus stress test in order to diagnose the MCL involvement.
• To use palpation of the medial joint space.
• To know two non-local treatments that may be used in the treatment of the medial compartment of the knee.
• To be able to describe needle technique on the local zone of the medial joint space of the knee, in the region of Liver 8.
• To know two signs and symptoms of medial collateral ligament sprain, and two signs and symptoms of chronic medial joint space arthritis.

Course Outline

0 hrs - 15 minReview anatomy of knee.

15 min - 30 minClinical assessment of pathology of medial knee.

30 min - 45 minDemonstration of assessment techniques.

45 min - 1 hrsDemonstration of needling techniques.