Common sports injuries to the knee.

The evaluation and treatment of knee injuries is common in the practice of sports medicine. The knee is the most commonly injured joint of the lower extremity. Therefore, the podiatrist should have an adequate knowledge and skill in the knee examination, anatomy, pathology, and biomechanics to properly diagnose and treat disorders of the joint. The etiologies of knee pain can be divided into five categories: (1) anterior, (2) posterior, (3) medial, (4) lateral, and (5) general for simplicity of description. The doctor can easily evaluate the painful knee in the athlete by remembering the major pathologies within each anatomic quadrant. Attention should be directed at those deformities of the knee that have biomechanical origins in the foot, in part or in toto. This biomechanical relationship when balanced into the treatment plan will increase the success of the management of the patient.