[helentheresa]

Hello, I wonder if any one has had similiar problems and can offer some advice. My son is 4 and has a right hemi. He hyper extends his right knee when walking or standing. He has always been prone to doing this, but recently he has complained of knee pain and I am trying to break the habit. I have spoken to various physios over the years with very little sucess.
The only thing that has been offered is a raise on the heal of his splint, I can't see any benefit in this apart from making him more inclined to toe walk and shorten his achiles. Also it makes it very difficult to get into shoes as the raise is over 2cm.
Any advice would be great.

Helen

[amy_louise]

Hello!

I have had much experience of hyper extension of the knee & it is a right pain! I'm 22 & left sided hemi. I posted about knee pain the other day. I had knee pain when I was younger, first remember when I was about 8, it used to hurt after I'd done a bit of walking. Xrays came back clear so my consultant was baffled. For the past 18 months i've been having botox in my hamstrings to try & get my heel on the floor. It works for about 4 months and then i'm back to square one. 1 thing I have definitely noticed, is that if the hamstrings are tight, (I can tell this just by the fact my calf muscle feels tight & my heel struggles to touch floor) I have significant pain in my knee & also in my hip. The pain happens after i've been standing or walking for a while. The knee pain almost feels like my knee just really wants to straighten out, i'm guessing this is hyper extension. I have a heel on my splint & it doesn't make a bit of difference. So in my experience, the trick in dealing with this is making sure the hamstrings are as loose as possible, that makes the walking better. My physio has said hyper extension of knee is just caused by abnormal walking pattern. Weirdly, I've found wearing a splint makes my HE of knee worse. I cannot walk up any hills, slopes or anything in a splint, cos my knee wants to straighten out too much.

I'm waiting for gait analysis to check out this knee/splint problem. I'll let you know what I find out. Might be worth you asking your consultant for gait analysis so you can see what's happening!

Best wishes,

Amy X

[helentheresa]

Thanks Amy, for your advice. Finn was assessed for botox, but they felt he would lose function and this was not the answer for him. I think we will need to get his leg stronger as he locks his knee due to lack of stability and strength in his leg.
A mum mentioned having the raise in his shoe instead of stuck to his splint, which I think would be preferable.

Helen x

[amy_louise]

helentheresa, on 26 September 2011 - 09:13 AM, said:

Thanks Amy, for your advice. Finn was assessed for botox, but they felt he would lose function and this was not the answer for him. I think we will need to get his leg stronger as he locks his knee due to lack of stability and strength in his leg.
A mum mentioned having the raise in his shoe instead of stuck to his splint, which I think would be preferable.

Helen x

No worries. Yes, I think a raise on a shoe would be better to be honest. I used to have this when I was younger. It would be much more stable on the shoe rather than the splint! Good luck X

[amy_louise]

Hello!

I saw my consultant y'day and mentioned my knee pain, he x rayed it (came back clear) I'm now having an MRI scan of my knee, because of the locking. My physio thinks it could be loose cartliage. If MRI doesn't show anything I could have key hole surgery to find answers. Could be worth you considering if knee problems are still an issue? X