My 14 year old son has severe knee pain daily. Why?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am a mother of a 14-year-old son. Over the past couple of months, my son has had severe knee pains daily. He has vitamin D deficiency, which I have been told may cause it. The pain usually starts after being in one position for too long. It only lasts for about a minute but the pain is bad and sharp.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

The symptoms you suggested point towards chondromalacia patella, which happens to be due to the softening of cartilage behind the knee cap. I suggest you try taking the following.

1. Tablet Ibuprofen 400 mg, twice a day for ten days after food.
2. Tablet Rabeprazole 20 mg, twice a day for ten days before food.
3. Tablet Shelcal (combination of Calcium carbonate and Vitamin D3) 500 mg, once daily for 30 days.
4. Tablet vitamin D 60K, once daily for ten days, then once a month for 11 months. This will help treat vitamin D deficiency.

Take these tablets only if you are not allergic to them. Do not take these tablets if you are a known case of bronchial asthma. You need to do exercises like vastus medialis obliques strengthening exercises and iliotibial band stretching exercises. Consult your specialist doctor, discuss with him or her and start taking the medicines after their consent. Only the above two exercises will help your son, if the symptoms do not subside then he needs to wear a knee brace with an open patella. This professional advice provided by me stands subject to the actual examination of report and image and is based entirely on inputs provided to me. It should be correlated with clinical findings.