General knee pain

What is General knee pain?

This section deals with pain in the knee that is not due to arthritis and not significantly linked to an accident/trauma.  Instead, this type of knee pain often comes on slowly and often in younger individuals.  As always, this general rule does not apply to everyone so feel free to look in each of the sections on this site. If still in doubt, seek a professional assessment.    

There are a confusing number of labels used for knee pains.  The most common ones are ‘anterior knee pain’ or ‘patello-femoral pain’.  All these terms really mean is ‘pain at the front of the knee’.  This is the area most knee pains are felt but pain can be experienced in all directions and also triggered by a number of different structures so we’ve used the even more global term ‘general knee pain’.  

If you have been diagnosed with arthritis of the knee then please visit the Osteoarthritis section of this site instead. If you have suffered an injury, and especially if your knee keeps giving way or locking on you, start by reading the ‘soft tissue injuries’ section instead.  For almost everyone else, the following is likely to be helpful. 

People who have general knee pain are likely to notice some or all of the following things:

• The exact area of pain is often difficult to define. Pain is usually felt somewhere around the front of the knee but can be anywhere in the area for some. 
• You may feel that the knee is not as stable but if there was no accident at the start then this is usually a result of muscle fatigue or pain and not due to an injury to the ligaments that stabilise the knee.
• You may notice a catching, seizing or clicking sensation during knee movements. 
• Pain may be increased with activities that involve long periods of time spent with the knee in a bent position e.g. sitting, squatting and kneeling.
• Going up or down stairs or steep hills may hurt. 

This type of knee pain is very common and most cases do settle with time.  However, many people can have more persistent pains and often explore different treatments to help it settle or keep it managed.  

Factors that may play a role in the development general knee pain:

• A sudden increase or change in activity levels. Particularly activities which involve loading the knee. An example may be a sudden increase in exercise or demands at work. New recruits in the military get this knee pain more than the public for this reason. 
• Being overweight increases the chance of knee pain but also of going on to suffer with osteoarthritis
• Females tend to get this pain more than males
• Previous trauma to the knee
• Fear of movement and low mood increased the risk of having more pain for longer