Urgent Advice: Get Advice From 111 Now If:
- your knee is very painful
- you cannot move your knee or put any weight on it
- your knee is badly swollen or has changed shape
- you have a very high temperature, feel hot and shivery, and have redness or heat around your knee this can be a sign of infection
111 will tell you what to do. They can tell you the right place to get help if you need to see someone.
Go to 111.nhs.uk or .
You can also go to an urgent treatment centre if you need to see someone now.
They’re also called walk-in centres or minor injuries units.
You may be seen quicker than you would at A& E.
Inner Knee Pain Symptoms
Other symptoms you may have with inner knee pain will vary, depending on the cause. You may have swelling, pain with particular movements and your knee may click or get stuck in one position .
With a medial collateral ligament injury, pain and swelling usually come on straightaway after your accident, although you may not always have swelling. The injury causes pain over the inner knee, which may be focussed on the mid-point of the knee joint. The ligament helps to keep the knee stable, so you may feel as if your knee is going to give way.
Symptoms of a torn meniscus cartilage generally come on up to a day after the initial injury. Pain and swelling may get worse and you may have difficulty fully straightening your leg. A more severe tear will be painful from the start.
The knee may also lock, feel stiff or feel unstable, as if its about to give way.
Pain from an anterior cruciate ligament injury may be sudden and you may hear a pop. The knee is likely to swell from internal bleeding and may feel as if its going to give way.
Osteoarthritis usually causes pain when youre putting weight on the leg, and is relieved by rest. You may have stiffness and loss of movement first thing in the morning or after sitting for a while. You may also have some swelling around your knee.
Medial plica syndrome typically causes pain on climbing stairs, running or squatting. You may have pain if you have your leg bent for a long time. The knee may also catch or click when you bend your leg.
Lateral And Medial Knee Pain
Lateral and Medial knee pains are gotten from biking. Lateral pain is pain on the outer side of the knee, while medial pain is anterior knee pain. It is felt inside the knee. Cleat positioning is a very common cause of lateral knee pain and medial knee pain. Outside-the-knee pain is prevalent, and the culprits are often the feet or improperly adjusted pedal cleats. As a result, such pain is felt during or after the first ride with cleats and new shoes or replacement cleats.
The collateral ligaments, which sit on the outsides of the knee joint and prevent it from bending in the wrong direction, are the structures generating the pain, and they hurt because your cleats have been positioned wrongly.
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Osteoarthritis Of The Knee
Osteoarthritis is a common cause of knee pain and usually affects people over fifty years old. It occurs when cartilage which protects the bones degenerates.
- Pain develops gradually over time and often causes stiffness and sometimes swelling.
- Symptoms start as a deep aching pain in the inner knee which is worse after exercise.
- Stiffness in the joint is common, particularly in the morning, however, this may reduce with movement as the joint produces lubricating synovial fluid.
- Sometimes a clicking or cracking noises are heard when moving the knee.
- More on Osteoarthritis of the knee
The Problem No One Is Talking About
When youve had your pain more than 2 months and youve seen 3-5 other doctors without more than 50% relief, you and I can probably both agree that theres something else going on.
The pain on the inside of your knee can be caused by failed ankle or hip tests.
You would fail any of the following:
- Knee to Wall Test with your toes 6 away from the wall, can your knee touch it with your heel down?
- Thigh to Chest Test lying on your back, can your thigh touch your ribs?
- Lunge Stretch Test kneeling, can the front of your hip move 12 in front of your knee?
If you failed any of those tests, your knee would start as inflamed and get better with rest. As time went on and you didnt fix the failed test, youd be risking the meniscus, MCL, or arthritic damage you currently dont have.
In order to get the failed test fixed and passing so that your knee operates at 100%, you need to find a adhesion specialist to find out if you have adhesion for any muscles that are responsible for stopping the joint in the correlated test.
If all of those tests are passing, the adhesion specialist would look at the knee joint itself.
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What Are The Causes Of Knee Pain In Teenagers
Common knee pain problems in your teenager can be generally divided into three types:
- Anterior knee pain, also called patellofemoral pain.
- Injures to ligaments and tendons of the knee or to the kneecap itself.
- Medical conditions that affect the knee.
Anterior knee pain happens when your teens kneecap is pulled out of its groove from increased pressure. Increased pressure on the knee joint is caused by:
- Abnormal hip rotation due to imbalances in muscle strength and flexibility around the hips.
- Improper training methods or equipment.
- Poor flexibility of the thigh muscles, which support the knee joint. Thigh muscle weakness or tightness.
- Overuse of the knee from repetitive bending of the knee during running, jumping, and other activities.
- Problems with alignment, for example, the kneecap not being properly aligned within the knee or having flat feet, which changes the normal gait.
Knee pain resulting from sprains, strains and tears to ligaments and tendons or injuries to other soft tissues. These conditions include:
Medical conditions that can affect your teens knee include:
Exercise Program For Pain In The Front Of Your Knee :
Many of you are afraid to exercise. Yes, some of you may have pain with a few of these exercises. You can start with quadriceps isometric exercises, or simply dont go too low with the squat, lunge or wall sit until your strength improves. Most of you will find that after doing these exercises 3 days/week for two weeks that your pain will start to improve. As I mentioned previously, this is a program that can take 6-12 months to fully correct the weakness pattern that led to pain in the front of your knee. So stick with it.
Squat: I like the variations that this group throws in. You do not and should not start with 100 if you are just starting out.
Chair Squats are the place to start if you dont have the strength or confidence.
Wall Sits: A great quadriceps exercise. This video is a little mechanical, but it contains the dos and donts of how to perform a wall sit.
Reverse Lunges: Easier than forward lunges. Dont lunge back further than you can handle. That distance will get further over time. Focus on your front knee so it doesnt wobble back and forth.
Planks: This video includes a good description of the proper technique, and it gives you 10 different variations to try.
Hamstring bridge exercise. If this is too easy you can rest a barbell across your pelvis, or a kettlebell on your lower abdomen.
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What Are Some Common Knee Problems
Many knee problems are a result of the aging process and continual wear and stress on the knee joint . Other knee problems are a result of an injury or a sudden movement that strains the knee. Common knee problems include the following:
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Medial Collateral Ligament Injury
The medial collateral ligament runs along the outside of your inner knee to stabilize the joint. If the ligament overstretches, you may have an MCL sprain.
The MCL can also tear partially or fully. An MCL injury most commonly occurs after force is applied to the outer knee, such as in contact sports.
Symptoms of an MCL injury include:
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Why Do I Have Pain In The Front Of The Knee
The most common cause of anterior knee pain is often felt to come from a muscular imbalance or a particular pattern of weakness. This will be the case for the majority of you reading this. At least thats what we think is the most common cause. We have come a long way in evaluating runners and other people who present with pain in the front of their knees. They often show the same findings when we use high-speed cameras to videotape them while running or walking. Now, this might be a chicken vs. the egg thing. Right? Which came first, the weakness pattern or the pain? We like to think it was the weakness that came first. We are still working on proving that.
If you are a runner or cyclist, etc then your training may influence your anterior knee pain. If you train too hard, too fast, and too often then you are at a higher risk of developing anterior knee pain. Most amateur runners run too fast on their easy days and too slow on their hard days. Proper base building, for strength, endurance and conditioning our joints to adapt to distance is of paramount importance. Zone 2 running programs are extremely important even for elite runners. Try to keep your training at a continuously progressive pace. You should be slowly increasing the load, distance, or speed over time. Try not to increase your load, eg. distance, speed, etc more than 10% per week. Most runners overuse injuries are training errors.
Diagnosing Inner Knee Pain
If you experience consistent pain, speak to your doctor as soon as possible. Your doctor will ask questions about the pain and other symptoms and will perform a physical examination with special tests specifically for the knee.
He or she may also order a diagnostic test, such as an MRI or X-ray for more conclusive results or ruling out certain injuries. It is also important for your doctor to rule out other possible issues such as a low back injury-known as lumbar radiculopathy.
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Location Of Inner Knee Pain
The exact location of inner knee pain can differ depending on the underlying problem.
- Lower inner knee pain occurs just below the inside of the knee joint. Pain around this area suggests a problem with the tendons, ligaments, or other connective tissue that attach to the lower part of the leg.
- If inner knee pain occurs near the center of the joint this is often due to a meniscus, ligament, or patellar injury.
- Pain above the knee is usually due to tendon or muscle issues in the upper thigh region.
There Is No Easy Surgical Solution For Anterior Knee Pain
The mere fact that there are likely to be ten or more described surgical techniques to try and treat pain in the front of your knee should give you pause. That usually means that none have been very successful, so we keep trying new ones. Surgery for anterior knee pain has not been proven to be more effective than a proper exercise program.
Drilling:
Some procedures have drilled holes into the patella, thinking that excess pressure may have been the cause of pain. Did it work for some people? Maybe but with that pesky placebo thing, we always hear about, we dont know because this procedure was never tested against control or sham. Besides having holes drilled through your patella might cause it to break if you fall on it or if you are hit in front of your knee.
Burning:
One prolific Spanish author wrote about burning the tissues around the patella. We call that a denervation procedure. Thats because when you heat the tissues, you will fry the nerves to that region. The thought behind this procedure was that the patella is fed by nerves that could easily be burned using an arthroscopic approach. This procedure was also never evaluated against a control group or a sham group- so we just dont know if it works.
Cutting:
Moving:
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Torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament
You hear a pop and can’t move after you suddenly change direction — often while playing soccer, football, or basketball. You may have torn your ACL, which connects the femur and the tibia and prevents the tibia from moving too far forward. Your knee will hurt and swell and feel unstable.
You can tear or strain any of the tissues that hold your knee together: Ligaments connect bones to each other tendons connect muscle to bone. Irritated tendons from using them too much? That’s tendinitis.
How Does A Meniscal Cyst Develop
Usually, a tear forms in the meniscal cartilage from degeneration or an acute injury. Fluid from the knee joint then leaks out of the tear forming a cyst. So, a meniscal cyst is not a true cyst but an outpouching of displaced knee fluid. Also, the cartilage tear can form a one-way valve preventing the fluid from going back into the knee. The fluid then collects as a cyst below knee cap.
Often, meniscal cysts form in people with a past history of a knee injury, cartilage damage, or contact or twisting sports. Also, the presence of arthritis predisposes to the formation of a cyst on side of knee.
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Adhesion In The Knee Capsule Is One Of Most Common Causes Of Pain On Inside Of Knee
When it comes to pain on the inside of your knee, theyd look for adhesion inside of your knee capsule.
The knee capsule is a paper-like sheath that surrounds the whole knee joint .
Adhesion acts like glue in the knee capsule.
Normally, your heel should touch your butt like it did for Amanda above.
When you have adhesion in your knee joint capsule, youd feel a slow-building tightness or mild pain in your knee joint with the Heel to Butt Test.
Your range would be restricted too. Amandas knee flexion range was 4 finger-breadths away from being full .
Remember, a restricted Heel to Butt Test that is NOT caused by adhesion, but by meniscus damage, would have moderate or significant pain . When the restriction is arthritis, the pain would typically get better with exercise .
How The Hamstrings Are Structured
If you are only familiar with only one muscle in the human body, its probably actually a group of muscles known as the hamstrings. They are the upper-leg muscles that tend to get tight when they are overworked or stiff when they arent worked enough. The hamstrings, just like all other structures in the body, are just one powerful link in the full body chain.
They dont function individually they function as an interconnected part of the entire body.
As such, at the basic anatomy level, the hamstrings anchor via tendons to the butt bone at what is called the ischial tuberosity . From there they stretch the full length of the upper leg and insert just below the knee.
With the hamstrings and the knee living in the same space, its easy to assume tight hamstrings may be causing knee pain or vice versa, and there are cases where this may be true. For example, a hamstrings tear or injury behind the knee could certainly be the source of pain behind the knee. However, with an injury ruled out, the next place we would want to look for the source of hamstrings tightness and knee pain would be the back.
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Brief Anatomy Of The Knee
The knee is a vulnerable joint that bears a great deal of stress from everyday activities, such as lifting and kneeling, and from high-impact activities, such as jogging and aerobics.
The knee is formed by the following parts:
-
Tibia. This is the shin bone or larger bone of the lower leg.
-
Femur. This is the thighbone or upper leg bone.
-
Patella. This is the kneecap.
Each bone end is covered with a layer of cartilage that absorbs shock and protects the knee. Basically, the knee is 2 long leg bones held together by muscles, ligaments, and tendons.
There are 2 groups of muscles involved in the knee, including the quadriceps muscles , which straighten the legs, and the hamstring muscles , which bend the leg at the knee.
Tendons are tough cords of tissue that connect muscles to bones. Ligaments are elastic bands of tissue that connect bone to bone. Some ligaments on the knee provide stability and protection of the joints, while other ligaments limit forward and backward movement of the tibia .
How To Fix The Pain Inside Of Your Knee
When you get the adhesion removed from your knee, you can expect flexibility changes like this:
This gentlemans heel-to-butt flexibility went from 3 to 0.75 in 5 minutes.
Treatment to get this type of quick and permanent change requires an expert who is able to feel exactly where the adhesion is:
The coolest thing about this type of treatment is that youd notice relief immediately afterwards.
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