The Knee Crisis Handbook: Understanding Pain, Preventing Trauma, Recovering from Injury, and Building Healthy Knees for Life

This book is amazing! I've been suffering with knee problems for 30+ years and have seen many specialists, but never have I understood the knee, its mechanics and its problems the way I do now. I have purchased a copy of this book for everyone I know who suffers with bad knees- from sports, injuries, arthritis, etc. Written in enjoyable prose, Halpern explains the way the knee is constructed along with its inherent problems given that we force it to operate in ways it was never designed to move and that we don't pay enough attention to medial healing. The strength and flexibility-building exercises are superb, and include everything I've ever done in (expensive) physical therapy and more. Everyone! should have this book!

I'm planning on ACL surgery in two weeks and I picked up several books yesterday. This is the most useful of the three. The Chapter on Preparing for Surgery is very good. It provides questions you might want to discuss with the doctor, what to expect and things to do ahead of time to prepare (lay in a stock of your favorite food, duct tape and hefty bags to waterproof . I would never have thought about half of these things, and they make a lot of sense! And there's a section on how to use crutches, which those of us who have been healthy until now have never had to think about. For me, these were worth the price of the book.

Corny review title, I know. But if I only knew ten years ago (five years, one year) what I know now...what I know now because of this book. Dr. Brian Halpern of the "Hospital for Special Surgery" in New York has written a thorough and highly readable primer on caring for the knee. There is a knee crisis in the United States...and I am sadly one of the recent casualties. With sections entitled "The Knee," "Preventing Knee Injury," "Getting Better" and "Groups with Special Concerns," you have all the information you need to prevent, diagnose, know whether it's time to go to the emergency room, prepare for surgery, find a physical therapist and participate wholeheartedly. There is also a chapter about "Complementary Medicine," discussing acupuncture, vitamins, herbal supplements and massage. I read it in a night, but will refer to it for years to come...whether I have surgery or not. I highly recommend it.

I injured my knee two weeks ago playing soccer, then bought this book and read it over the course of one weekend. The information is in simple terms, there are testimonies from actual people, there is a glossary in the back, and an index. Once I read this book, I was actually able to understand and translate my MRI report. I am very thankful I found this book. It has informed me about my injury, and I feel more able to cope with what happened and know that I have this book as my guide!

I just read this book after getting it for Christmas yesterday, and I think it's great. After getting nowhere with two doctors, a physical therapist, and conflicting information I've gathered talking to friends and acquaintances over the years, I think this book will give me the insight and exercises I need to make some progress in strengthening my knee so I can participate in activities I had to give up (dancing and biking) and can make a much more informed decision about possible surgery. All different types of knee problems are well explained. Alignment issues (including Q-angle, foot arch, femur to tibia, patella tracking, etc.) and how they can lead to certain types of injury are explained in a way I have not seen done elsewhere. Also included are what movement tests your doctor should take in diagnosing your injury (neither doctor I went to performed those simple tests!). I wish I had been able to read this book a few years ago when my overuse dance injury occurred, but I had not found a book so specific to the knee out on the market (this book was recently published in 2003). I would recommend this book to anyone starting to experience knee pain, as well as anyone active in sports that are known to lead to knee injury; there are exercises and stretching recommended in this book to help avoid knee injury and to strengthen the knee area to possibly avoid or delay surgery. I'm very glad the doctor/author decided to write this much-needed book!