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Hey guys. I'm a 2nd year interested in going into ortho, and lately I've been having a unique problem, no past history of joint or knee problems. For the past couple of years, I've been having progressively worsening right knee pain. I've been to doctors, gotten imaging, done physical therapy, and nothing helps.
I suspect this all began three years ago while skiing, when I took a slow fall at the beginning of the day while clipped into my skis to practice falling. You should know it takes a lot more energy to unclip a boot the slower you go. Not sure which way my body rotated relative to my leg, but I remember a nice rotation at my flexed knee at the time the injury occurred. From thereon in the entire day, my knee wasn't particularly in pain unless my ski was hanging free from the lift, and especially if I tried to extend my leg out with the ski attached. Unattached, it hurt significantly less. I also noticed when I was first learning to make turns, I was "forcing" the ski to internally rotate, not sure if that was due to my technique or some ongoing tear/weakness/stupidity. I later learned the proper technique and it significantly reduced my knee pain.
Even before then though, maybe I had some knee problem on my right because even throughout college I remember having a shooting pain that would radiate deep in my knee as I would walk up stairs sometimes, and only then. It would be mind numbing pain that would last a split second, and would resolve within a few minutes.
So last year I was determined to find the cause of my pain, as it would get worse if I ran on a treadmill, but especially when I rode a bike. And also because last season it would be hard to ski unless I got warmed up and got back in my groove (again, not forcing the skis to turn helped a lot)
Over the past two years I've been noticing this odd clicking/snapping/popping in my knee, which I thought was a meniscal tear at first but upon closer inspection, this is how I can precisely recreate it without fail: sitting up in bed, my right leg flexed at 120 degrees with my foot resting close to my right buttock, knee slightly crossing the midline. I compress my foot down into the mattress to put some pressure onto the joint line, and internally rotate my knee as far as it can go. The click is felt as I rotate my foot outward, and back the other way, at a very specific point. My leg muscles have to be contracted as well in order to get the most effective "snapping" sensation, which I feel is more along the lateral joint line. If I don't "dig" my foot into the mattress it's harder to recreate, probably because the tension in the knee ligaments isn't there. Also of interest, when I translate the tibia laterally relative to the femur in this bent position and rotate, I cannot recreate the snapping. It's only when I don't translate it that it occurs, or especially if I translate the tibia medially (which goes along with bringing the knee across the midline). The snapping itself is not painful, however I have a diffuse achiness along the inside of my knee for hours afterwards, and even some pain/tingling that goes down the medial aspect of my leg down to my toes, and up around my lower quads. This isn't sciatica. There is also crepitus that's heard in this position at all times when I rotate my leg in and out, and it also exists when I flex/extend my leg but to a much minor degree.
MRI a year ago showed a mildly attenuated/thinned ACL with no meniscal tearing . There is no swelling or bruising of the joint.
Orthopedic surgeons said it's nothing to worry about, probably just a loose ligament or torn tendon, and recommended a steroid injection, which I don't think would help the root of this problem. PT said it could be patellofemoral syndrome because my quad on my right is pretty weak now. I thought it was my semitendinosus/membranosus snapping over the tibia. I feel something "loose" between my patella and lateral aspect of knee when I massage/poke it with my finger with some light pressure. So I'm thinking it's plica syndrome, or a torn retinaculum or lateral collateral ligament, or some other syndrome that can manifest as snapping.
Maybe there's someone here that has an idea what this could be?
I suspect this all began three years ago while skiing, when I took a slow fall at the beginning of the day while clipped into my skis to practice falling. You should know it takes a lot more energy to unclip a boot the slower you go. Not sure which way my body rotated relative to my leg, but I remember a nice rotation at my flexed knee at the time the injury occurred. From thereon in the entire day, my knee wasn't particularly in pain unless my ski was hanging free from the lift, and especially if I tried to extend my leg out with the ski attached. Unattached, it hurt significantly less. I also noticed when I was first learning to make turns, I was "forcing" the ski to internally rotate, not sure if that was due to my technique or some ongoing tear/weakness/stupidity. I later learned the proper technique and it significantly reduced my knee pain.
Even before then though, maybe I had some knee problem on my right because even throughout college I remember having a shooting pain that would radiate deep in my knee as I would walk up stairs sometimes, and only then. It would be mind numbing pain that would last a split second, and would resolve within a few minutes.
So last year I was determined to find the cause of my pain, as it would get worse if I ran on a treadmill, but especially when I rode a bike. And also because last season it would be hard to ski unless I got warmed up and got back in my groove (again, not forcing the skis to turn helped a lot)
Over the past two years I've been noticing this odd clicking/snapping/popping in my knee, which I thought was a meniscal tear at first but upon closer inspection, this is how I can precisely recreate it without fail: sitting up in bed, my right leg flexed at 120 degrees with my foot resting close to my right buttock, knee slightly crossing the midline. I compress my foot down into the mattress to put some pressure onto the joint line, and internally rotate my knee as far as it can go. The click is felt as I rotate my foot outward, and back the other way, at a very specific point. My leg muscles have to be contracted as well in order to get the most effective "snapping" sensation, which I feel is more along the lateral joint line. If I don't "dig" my foot into the mattress it's harder to recreate, probably because the tension in the knee ligaments isn't there. Also of interest, when I translate the tibia laterally relative to the femur in this bent position and rotate, I cannot recreate the snapping. It's only when I don't translate it that it occurs, or especially if I translate the tibia medially (which goes along with bringing the knee across the midline). The snapping itself is not painful, however I have a diffuse achiness along the inside of my knee for hours afterwards, and even some pain/tingling that goes down the medial aspect of my leg down to my toes, and up around my lower quads. This isn't sciatica. There is also crepitus that's heard in this position at all times when I rotate my leg in and out, and it also exists when I flex/extend my leg but to a much minor degree.
MRI a year ago showed a mildly attenuated/thinned ACL with no meniscal tearing . There is no swelling or bruising of the joint.
Orthopedic surgeons said it's nothing to worry about, probably just a loose ligament or torn tendon, and recommended a steroid injection, which I don't think would help the root of this problem. PT said it could be patellofemoral syndrome because my quad on my right is pretty weak now. I thought it was my semitendinosus/membranosus snapping over the tibia. I feel something "loose" between my patella and lateral aspect of knee when I massage/poke it with my finger with some light pressure. So I'm thinking it's plica syndrome, or a torn retinaculum or lateral collateral ligament, or some other syndrome that can manifest as snapping.
Maybe there's someone here that has an idea what this could be?
