‘Elderly’ patients have come to our clinic with a diagnosis slapped on them – Knee Osteoarthritis. After thorough assessment, its not that at all. Its actually called Hoffa’s Fat Pad Impingement.
Many people in the younger population also get this! It can be an acute injury, a chronic injury, a traumatic injury or even occurring ever so slowly and without any particular reason.
Bottom line, come to our clinic to get your injury/pain thoroughly assessed to determine the specific cause so it can then be treated as fast as possible.
What is Fat Pad Impingement you ask?
The Fat Pad itself is a spongey tissue just underneath the lower portion of the kneecap and its main job is to soften the landing of the kneecap on the rest of the knee (tibia). This Fat Pad has a very rich blood and nerve supply, making this structure highly sensitive – its acutally considered a key pain generator in many knee conditions.
So Fat Pad Impingement is when the Fat Pad itself becomes irritated and inflamed, causing high levels of pain! When it is irritated, positions that can be extremely painful (but not limited to) are when the knee is completely straight (walking, laying in bed, etc.) as well as when kneeling on the knee (pressure on the kneecap and fat pad).
What do we do as physiotherapists to get rid of this condition:
We as physios must thoroughly assess the knee to determine what other contributing factors are involved (maybe muscle weakness, maybe structure tightness, incorrect tracking of the kneecap, etc.). once weve identified the impairments, we can then address them! And then voila, its gone! Youre living happy and healthy!
Some things I want you to take home:
- Don’t sit with the pain. Come see us so we can determine the underlying causes and direct you in completely getting rid of the pain!
- Ice will help as this will reduce the inflammation of the fat pad and reduce the pain.
- Avoid aggravating movements/positions (knee straight, kneeling, etc.)
- We will use different taping techniques to take the pressure off the fat pad to allow for good recovery
- We will work with you to make sure you can do as much as you love without it impacting your healing/recovery.
Don’t live in pain, speak to our friendly team and find out how we can help you!
