Knee Pain: The key to the knee is understanding the V.M.O.

Understanding of knee pains seems poor in many quarters. There is inaccurate guidance for the rehabilitation of the quadriceps muscles based on derivative information that was incorrect.

The anatomy of the nerve to the vastus medialis oblique and functional considerations following from this have been ill understood in the orthopaedic and physiotherapy worlds.

Knee Pain: Know More is written for the layman with a view to self-help. The hope is that a demand from the layperson for better treatment might trigger interest from the professionals. The Science section includes photos of the nerves to the quadriceps and discussion of the implications of their different sizes. For example the probable size of the motor units of the V.M.O. is that they are significantly smaller than the other quadriceps muscles, i.e. their function is fine control, steering and co-ordination, and not simply power production. In consequence they are much more susceptible to pain and the incoordination it causes.

Simply put, re-education of the V.M.O. function can significantly reduce knee pain, speed recovery after injury including surgery, and often it can reduce the need for surgical intervention.

There are opinions and simplifications to make the book more easily digested by the lay reader of which I am well aware, but the science, published and unpublished is accurate.

There is no attempt to list references of papers on the knee and related topics. They would be vastly longer than the text in the book. They would be inappropriate for the layman and the professional should already be cognisant of them during their training.