Pain In Hip Down To Knee
Hip pain that radiates down to the knee can be very uncomfortable. Your knee and hip joints are the largest joints in your body they support your body’s weight and they work together to give you the mobility that is sometimes taken for granted.
The hip is a ball-and-socket joint that helps you move your legs with a wide variety of motions that you use throughout the day, like going up and down stairs. It has a wide range of motion and is very stable if the knee joint works properly. The joint, which sits atop the femur, is called the femoral head, and the socket created by the hollow of your pelvis is called the acetabulum. Surrounding the joint is the fibrous capsule sleeve that holds the bones together.
The knee is an incredibly complex joint that goes through a tremendous range of motion. It has many muscles that cross the knee joint to help control its movement while walking, running, squatting, or going up and down stairs. All of this movement occurs while supporting your body weight. The internal components of the knee include several strong ligament structures that prevent excessive shearing motions. Likewise, we have several strong muscles that cross the outside of the knee joint including the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gastrocnemius muscles.
What Else Can Help
If none of these are sounding quite like your patellofemoral pain, visit the knee pain diagnosis section for help working out what is wrong with your knee.
To find out more about these common causes of knee cap pain,including causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment options, click on the linksabove.
Page Last Updated: September 9, 2020Next Review Due: September 9, 2022
Related Articles
What Can Cause Knee Pain Without Injury
Most people assume that their knee pain isnt severe or in need of medical attention because they havent suffered a significant injury. While that may be true sometimes, damage to your knee joint can also occur slowly over time, and affect you just as much as a significant accident or injury can.
First, lets stop with assumptions. Any pain you are experiencing is a sign that something is not right. So, why not have a specialist take a look? With extensive imaging, a trained orthopedic specialist can get to the bottom of your nagging knee pain and try to help relieve some of that distress. If you havent suffered an injury, however, your doctor will want to diagnose the pain and possible causes. There are some more common causes for non-trauma related knee pain:
Arthritis
Either rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis can cause leave you with severe knee pain, even without a fall or injury. Osteoarthritis can be characterized by the pain and swelling you continue to feel as you age. Your joints are not indestructible, and the structure inevitably wears down over time. Rheumatoid arthritis, on the other hand, is a chronic disorder that also causes joints to swell. If you suspect RA is behind your knee pain, you might have pain in other joints, as well.
A tear
Bursitis
Tendonitis
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What Causes Pain From Knee To Ankle
Leg pain can affect people in any areas. It can appear as pain from knees to ankles, in the foot, in the knee, behind the knee, in the ankle, down the back of your leg, etc. In most cases, those who have pain from their knee to ankle have lower leg pain. Even though your legs are affected the most by your daily activities, you shouldnt be in pain. Pain in your lower legs may be due to issues with nerves, blood clots, or a number of other potential problems.
Blood Clots Behind Knee
It is important to note that pain and swelling behind the knee may be associated with blood clots. Blood clots behind the knee are especially common for those on bed rest or prolonged laying down, recovering from surgery or who have experienced trauma to the knee. Age and weight may also be a factor in blood clots. If you are experiencing behind knee pain, see a doctor to diagnose your situation, especially as you may be experiencing a blood clot behind knee.
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Why Does My Knee Hurt When I Climb Stairs
Meanwhile, scientists continue to explore treatments and to keep an eye on viral variants. If you have dull, aching pain at the front of your knee that occurs when you climb stairs, bend down, or squat, it could be patellofemoral pain syndrome, sometimes referred to as runners knee or jumpers knee.
Other Inner Knee Pain Treatments
If your inner knee pain worsens after several days, or if basic at-home remedies dont alleviate symptoms, you should go see your doctor.
Some treatment methods for more serious knee injuries include:
- Steroid injection. This injection is used to treat pes anserine bursitis.
- Physical therapy. Therapy often involves stretching, exercises, and ultrasound therapy.
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Why Does Your Knee Hurt When You Climb The Stairs
To answer that question, lets review the mechanics of knee movement.
Your knee joins three major bones: your thigh bone , your shin bone , and your kneecap . All three bones along with their associated ligaments and muscles must work in unison to support your weight and allow fluid leg movement.
With each bend, the patella, a free-floating bone, slides over the femur in the trochlear groove. The articular cartilage keeps your kneecap in position as it cushions and lubricates the joint, so the bones glide against one another.
Damaged cartilage may not cause pain when you walk. But as running, deep knee bends, squats or climbing stairs subjects the knee to additional stress, the pain increases. These types of motions force the kneecap to slide up and down. Worn cartilage cannot keep the kneecap in the groove when the knee is under pressure. As the kneecap slips out of position, it causes pain.
The Pros And Cons Of Cortisone Shots
If you’re experiencing pain that makes it difficult for you to start physical therapy to address your knee problem, your doctor might recommend that you get an injection of cortisone to lessen the pain.
The shot injects a corticosteroid drug and a local anesthetic into the joint to temporarily relieve pain and swelling. But it isn’t a long-term fix. “Often people think that injections, especially cortisone injections, will fix a knee problem. What they do is provide a window of pain relief so you can make progress with rehabilitation,” says Dr. Rebecca Breslow, an instructor in orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School. “But when cortisone injections are overused, there is some evidence that they can actually accelerate osteoarthritis.”
In short, while cortisone shots put you on the path to healing, they should be used judiciously and aren’t a permanent solution to the underlying problem that’s causing your knee pain.
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Common Causes Of Inner Knee Pain
There are a variety of causes of inner knee pain. Many of them can be linked to an injury. Some of the most common incidents that cause knee injury and pain include falls, sports injuries, or increased activity.
Adults particularly those older than 60 are most likely to experience knee pain. However, inner knee pain can also occur in children and adolescents.
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the most common causes of inner knee pain in children are:
- patellar subluxation
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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Youre Trying To Relax
When your body is at rest, you may notice the mild to moderate pains that you could more easily ignore when your mind was preoccupied with busy thoughts during your waking hours.Additionally, when you sleep, your body produces less cortisol. While high cortisol levels can lead to heart disease, healthier levels can help your body reduce inflammation.
Since most joint pains are caused by or worsened by inflammation, moderate amounts of cortisol can help your body manage this inflammation. But when your body is relaxed, such as when youre trying to go to sleep, your body has less cortisol to mitigate the swelling and irritation in your knees.
Three Reasons Your Knee Hurts When Straight But Not When Bent
Your knees are complex joints that bear a lot of your body weight and power your legs for a wide range of activities like walking, running and jumping. Its important to take care of your knees so you can live out your normal daily life and enjoy physical activities. However, despite your best efforts, injuries and conditions can affect your knees, which can limit their use.
Some conditions cause pain that only affects your knees when trying to straighten them but not bending them. Common conditions that cause this kind of pain include:
1. Torn meniscus
The meniscus is a small, flat piece of cartilage that rests between the thighbones and shinbones on each side of your knees. There are two menisci in each knee. They exist to absorb shock in the knees and keep the bones from grinding against one another.
A traumatic injury that causes the knee to violently twist can cause a meniscus to tear. A torn meniscus might fold on itself, which can keep you from fully straightening your leg and cause knee pain when you try to do so.
2. Runners knee
Runners knee is the common term for pain around the kneecap. This is a condition in which the tendon that connects your kneecap to your shinbone becomes inflamed from repetitive motions. This can make it painful around the kneecap when you try and fully straighten your leg.
3. Strained muscles
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Lower Leg Pain Caused By Veins And Nerve Issues
1. Blood Clot
When blood thickens in veins, it can develop a clot. This typically happens in the thigh or lower leg, commonly leading to pain from knee to ankle. There is a higher risk if you are overweight, on certain medicines, or inactive for a long car ride or flight.
2. Varicose Veins
Varicose veins are caused by weakness in the vein walls or valves and can lead to a dull ache, particularly after standing.
3. Lower-Extremity Peripheral Arterial Disease
This occurs if your legs arteries get damaged and harden. The legs begin to miss needed blood flow, leading to pain or cramps when walking or climbing stairs.
4. Narrowed Spinal Canal and Sciatica
When the spinal canal narrows due to a herniated disc, arthritis of the spine, or another cause, it can lead to weakness, fatigue, numbness, tingling, or cramping, burning leg pain when you sit or stand. It may start in the hip and the back before extending down the leg.
5. Diabetic Neuropathy
This diabetes complication can be due to high blood sugar levels and leads to pain in both legs. It also features less sensation and numbness in lower legs.
When to See a Doctor
You should see your doctor for pain from knee to ankle if you have the following symptoms:
Can Someone With Pfp Syndrome Play Sports
Most people with PFP syndrome need to cut back or stop sports for some time. Follow the health care provider’s instructions on when it’s safe for you to go back to sports. This usually is when:
- Hip, leg, and core strength is near normal.
- Flexibility, especially in the hamstring muscle, has improved.
- There’s no pain with everyday activities, such as walking and going up/down stairs.
- Any pain with activity is very mild and goes away within a few minutes of starting the activity.
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Lack Of Sleep Makes Pain Worse
It can be easy to get stuck in a cycle where you cant sleep because of knee pain. That lack of sleep can actually make your pain worse. Sleep is vital for healing and rejuvenation. Without sleep, you have less energy to expend on healing as you need to focus your bodily processes on staying alert and awake.If nighttime knee pain causes you to toss and turn, you may end up accidentally further straining your knee by sleeping in an uncomfortable position.
What Causes Swelling Without Pain
Persistent ankle swelling without pain is a common symptom among people living with moderate to severe heart failure. The weakened pumping capacity of the heart causes blood pooling in the legs and water retention by the kidneys. These factors frequently lead to painless edema of the ankles, feet and lower legs.
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Is The Sound That My Knee Makes Bad
As we reviewed in a popular post about the sounds that our knees make, we discussed that the majority of these sounds are not mechanical or dangerous! That means that you are probably not bone on bone or grinding away the insides of your knee when you bend it. Yes, these sounds can be annoying or even embarrassing, but they are rarely dangerous. The most common cause of this grinding sensation or sound is actually due to inflammation of the tissues inside the knee. You do not need cortisone or lubricating injections to treat these sounds or sensations.
Is Surgery Ever Needed For Anterior Knee Pain
In some cases of patella instability, where the kneecap dislocates often we need to consider surgery to reconstruct the ligament which holds the patella in place.
In cases of severe arthritis of the patella, we occasionally need to consider a joint replacement if you do not respond to a compression sleeve, injections, activity modification, and physical therapy.
Patella tendonitis or a jumpers knee will usually respond to activity modification and physical therapy. It is not unusual for your recovery to take up to 6-8 months. If the pain remains severe, there has been a recent interest in trying PRP injections to regenerate the patella tendon. It is still controversial whether or not PRP injections are useful. Surgery, although rarely needed, can be very useful in severe cases of a jumpers knee.
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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.
What Does A Knee Injury Feel Like
Obviously, it hurts! But the type of pain and where you feel it can vary, depending on what the problem is. You may have:
- Pain, usually when you bend or straighten the knee
- Swelling
- Trouble putting weight on the knee
- Problems moving your knee
- Knee buckling or âlockingâ
If you have these symptoms, see your doctor. They will check your knee. You may also need X-rays or an MRI to see more detail of the joint.
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Managing Outer Knee Pain
Immediately after an injury, you can help yourself by resting your leg, using an ice pack and taking painkillers, such as ibuprofen. If you cant put weight on your leg, you may need crutches. Avoid twisting or bending the knee as far as possible.
If your injury is mild, you may not need to see a doctor or physiotherapist, but you should if:
- you cannot put weight on the affected leg
- you have severe pain, even when not bearing weight
- your knee buckles, clicks or locks
- your knee is deformed or misshapen
- your knee is hot, red or very swollen or you have a fever
- you have pain, swelling, numbness, tingling, or a bluish discoloration in your calf
- youre still in pain after three days