Why is knee popping

To see if you may have crepitus, sit on the edge of a table with your knee hanging down. Then gently extend and lower your knee with your palm resting over the front of the knee.

When you have crepitus, it feels like a crunching sensation under your hand. There are times when swelling of the tendons that surround the knee can cause the tendons to catch on the knee as the knee bends. The most common type is called iliotibial IT band tendonitis. The iliotibial band is a tendon that runs from your hip to just beneath your knee.

When this band becomes swollen or irritated, it can get stuck on the end of the thigh bone as the knee bends back and forth. Unlike mechanical popping where the problem is deep inside the joint, this type of popping is felt just below the skin.

Often you can feel the tendon by simply moving the knee as you rest your hand on the affected tendon. If you have any pain along with these symptoms, have a doctor look at your knee as soon as possible. Doing so may prevent a more serious knee injury including anterior cruciate ligament ACL injuries.

They affect between , and , Americans each year. Even if the knee popping isn't painful, you may still want to have it checked out. In some cases, it may be an early warning sign of an overuse injury. This may require weight loss, a change of footwear, or knee-strengthening exercises to protect the joint.

The best treatments are targeted directly at the specific problem that is causing the abnormal popping or snapping inside the knee joint. You can ease crepitus and tendon problems with treatments to reduce inflammation in the knee joint, such as rest and anti-inflammatory medications.

Most mechanical problems are best treated with arthroscopic knee surgery. This is a procedure in which a camera and tools are passed through small incisions into the joint to repair any damage. When you feel a popping or snapping sensation in your knee, various problems may cause it.

If you have pain along with snapping and popping, you need to see your doctor as soon as possible. But even if you aren't experiencing pain with the snapping or popping sensation, you may want to see your doctor anyway.

Having a doctor examine your knee can help you figure out if it's a serious issue or something that you don't need to worry about. Dealing with joint pain can cause major disruptions to your day. Sign up and learn how to better take care of your body. Click below and just hit send! Conundrum of mechanical knee symptoms: Signifying feature of a meniscal tear?

Br J Sports Med. Outcomes of prolotherapy in chondromalacia patella patients: Improvements in pain level and function. Beals C, Flanigan D. What if it hurts when my joints pop or grind? You should be concerned if you have joint noise that is accompanied by pain, discomfort or swelling.

This could be a sign that medical attention is required. Two of the most common cause for knee pain are:. To help protect the knees, try exercises that develop the quadriceps, which are the muscles in the front of the thigh. View Larger Image. What is the clicking? Here are the other reasons for clicking at the knee that we see in clinic: 1.

It is a benign cyst but can cause flicking at the back of the knee as the hamstring tendons cross descend adjacent to it. The medial hamstrings, more specifically the tendons of the semimembranosus and semitendinosus muscles pass across the back of the knee and can flick on each other as you bend and straighten your knee for example with walking, running or going and down hills or stairs.

Both these conditions are often pain free and are often nothing to worry about. What the clicking is not? More reasons why should you not worry about your clicking knees? There is no correlation between the amount of clicking or the volume of the clicking and levels of pain.

There is no evidence it will progress into becoming painful. It is not a pain predictor! Book a consultation with us. Related Posts. Why does the cold weather make my pain worse? Is running bad for my knees? Knee Pain in Cyclists. Skiing; Have you injured your knee on the slopes?