Posterior Knee Pain

[elinwee]

Hi there

Sorry for delay in reply - I got a 4 month old and as you can guess, my life is consumed with him besides trying to get to work too!

It is really hard to tell without an exam what may be causing your knee pain. Although, posterior knee pain is a lot less common (i think) than anterior knee pain. One of the common causes of posterior knee pain is a BAkers cyst. Other possible causes of post knee pain can be from the hamstring tendons if the pain is not directly central but either medial or lateral. And of course, you can get post knee pain referred from back/ hip/ pelvis.

Re sub patella pain - you mentioned that the debridement was to help this prob. In my experience, most sub patella pain is due to patella femoral pain syndrome (PFPS) - such pain I am not sure is helped much debridement procedures tho I may be wrong. PFPS often responds well to quadriceps strengthening, VMO (Vastus medialis obliqus) retraining and taping during activity.

Often, it will be great if a specific dx can be achieved but in the absence of a specific one, knee rehabilitation still can go ahead. You need to work on the range (which you have been), and the strength of the knee muscles. Then also have to work in global lower limb biomechanics - there are many ways to do this my preferred method is to use a progressive series of weigthbearing exercises which will strengthen the knee muscles, but also improve on how the hip-knee-ankle work together in a closed kinematic chain.

You prob will benefit from an assessment of the knee structures - physios can assess the integrity of the ACL/PCL/MCL/LCL, meniscus, patellafemoral joint and overall stability of the knee to determine the extent of deficit in knee function.

Its a bit of a overload in info- hope it helps!

Elin

[ParamedicJim]

Hi Elin, I've been seen by the hospital physios and the Services contract physios now and the general consensus is that there is no underlying damage now (confirmed through the scope) and the pain is from the tighening of all the soft tissues around my knee and the quads because of their lack of use over the last 7 months. Does that sound right? They have both confidently said with a set of rehab including stretching exercises I should regain full flex and be able to go on to exercise fully. If this is the case I'll be over the moon, though I must say I can't guess how long it will take. Many thanks for all your posts. I hope your 4 month old is the light of your life, ours is full of surprises and I admit initially I just wanted to fix myself for me though now I just want to be able to do everything with her.

All the best, ParamedicJim