The Evolution and Prevalence of Knee Injuries: Repair at What Cost?

Knee injuries are a common nuisance in the lives of many ac-tive individuals. They can stem from tissue damage, ligament damage or bone and/or cartilage damage. Through the explo-ration of major knee injuries, prevention and more efficient re-habilitation can be attained. The most common knee injuries are analyzed and each of their main cause is examined in this pa-per. Orthopaedic surgery techniques are discussed, such as, ACL reconstruction, meniscal resection/meniscectomy and high tibial osteotomy. These surgical techniques have evolved immensely in response to the high occurrence of serious knee injuries in ac-tive individuals. Many of these injuries originate from too much torque and/or torsion on the knee joint occurring during sports. The faulty anatomy of the knee joint and the glacial pace of evo-lution play amuch larger role than just prevalence of injuries. The economic cost of major knee injury repairs is far too high in pri-vate health care systems, which in turn results in a poorer quality of psychosocial health in those injured and unable to receive the corrective surgeries