Q: Last week I was doing squats in the gym and felt a pain on the inside part of my left knee. I was able to finish my workout and later that night it swelled a little bit. I rested it for a couple of days and then returned to my workouts in the gym.

The swelling has gone away but when I do squats or lunges the knee still hurts on the inside. The knee has not felt unstable and I have still been able to play basketball and tennis. I do not think that it is anything bad but I am worried that I cannot do my regular workout without pain and wanted to make sure that I am not hurting myself worse.

A: Patients who perform a lot of squats and lunges are at greater risk for damaging the meniscal cartilage of the knee.

There are two meniscal cartilages, one on the inside ''medial'' and one on the outside ''lateral,'' which are C- or O-shaped shock absorbers between the end of the femur and the beginning of the tibia.

When athletes say they had a cartilage tear they are usually talking about a tear in the meniscal cartilage. If these tears get bigger, they can actually slip out of place and cause the knee to catch or lock. Although other possible diagnoses for you include a sprain of the medial collateral ligament or a stress reaction of the knee, your most likely diagnosis is a medial meniscal tear. I recommend that you see an orthopedic surgeon who will perform an examination and likely obtain an MRI scan to determine the extent of the damage.

If a medial meniscal tear is found in a young patient, these usually require arthroscopic surgery to fix and to prevent further injury.

The Jock Doc column runs every other week.

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