Knee Pain Location Chart: Find the Cause of Your Knee Pain
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Knee is a complex joint, with bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles enabling the hinge-like motion and supporting your entire body as you stand, walk, or run. Because of its complexity and weight-bearing function, the knee is susceptible to injuries.
It can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of knee pain, for a few reasons:
Many knee injuries share similar symptoms
Knee pain can be caused by injuries elsewhere in the body, like in your hip, lower back, calf, etc.
When you compensate to manage your pain, the change in how you move and hold your body can shift the pain location
So, good physical therapists take a very detailed history, in addition to using knee pain tests, to diagnose knee injuries accurately.
Knee pain location is one of the factors. Let’s take a look at the most common knee pain conditions, depending on where you feel the pain. Here's a handy-dandy knee pain location chart for quick reference.
Three conditions are common when you have pain in front of the knee, or in other words, pain at the kneecap.
Often called Runner’s Knee, Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is one of the most common conditions that cause pain in and around the kneecap (patella).
Causes
Runner’s Knee is an overuse injury. When there’s an imbalance in muscle output between your inner and outer thighs, or weakness somewhere in your lower kinetic chain, it can cause malalignment of the kneecap, leading to pain.
Who are affected
Runner’s Knee is a very common condition, affecting up to 20% of people at least once in their lifetime.
It’s particularly common among runners, because of the repetitive impact that goes through the knee when you run.
Women, especially younger women who specialize in a sport, are more at risk.
People with overpronation and flatfoot (fallen arches), have a higher risk of Runner’s Knee.
Treatment
Physical therapy, whether in-clinic or done at home, using our Runner's Knee solution, is an effective, root-cause treatment for Runner’s Knee.
Here are our PT tips for Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Self-Care.
Osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition, can affect all parts of the knee, including the area around the kneecap.
Causes
Osteoarthritis is a painful condition due to loss of cartilage in your knee joint. With less cartilage acting as a buffer, the bones rub together, causing pain, inflammation and swelling. It’s a degenerative condition that happens due to wear and tear over many years.
Who are affected
Several things raise your risk of developing osteoarthritis in the knee: being overweight, having a prior knee injury, knee overuse, and family history of osteoarthritis.
Treatment
There is no cure for osteoarthritis, but there are treatments to slow down the progression and relieve your symptoms, including lifestyle changes, pain medications, physical therapy, and wearing a knee brace.
ACL tear is another common injury, especially among athletes, that can cause pain in front of the kneecap (even though some people don’t feel pain at all).
Most people know when they have this injury, since it’s usually caused by a blunt force, and you can hear or feel a pop in the knee when it happens.
Causes
Anterior Cruciate Ligament connects your femur in the thigh to your tibia in the shin. The ACL keeps your knee from bending or twisting more than it should. When more force is applied to the ACL than it can withstand, it can get injured or develop a tear.
Who are affected
The ACL is the most commonly injured ligament in the knee, and anyone can develop this condition from a sports injury, car accident, or a fall. That said, if you play sports like soccer or gymnastics that require sudden movements (like stopping, changing directions, or twisting), you have a higher risk of this injury.
Treatment
A torn ACL can’t heal on its own, so you’ll need surgery to repair the tear, especially if it’s a major tear and you want to stay active. To manage pain and other symptoms, your doctor may recommend crutches, a knee brace, NSAIDs, physical therapy and other treatments.
It sounds confusing, but when physical therapists and orthopedists say “inner side of the knee,” they don’t mean “in” the knee. “Inner side of the knee” means the side closer to the center of your body. The technical term is “medial,” as opposed to “lateral,” which means the side away from the center of your body.
Several common injuries cause pain on the inner side of the knee.
Medial Meniscus is a C-shaped cartridge located on the inner (medial) side of the knee that acts as a connecting, stabilizing buffer between your femur and tibia (thigh and shin bones).
Sometimes, you can continue to walk or even play sport right after the injury occurs, but these activities will become increasingly difficult as pain, swelling and stiffness kick in after a day or two.
Causes
Though it’s usually a sports injury from sudden twisting motions, it can also happen due to osteoarthritis in the knee.
Who are affected
People who play sports that involve sudden twisting motions of the knee, including soccer, football, baseball, and skiing, are at a higher risk of Medial Meniscus Tear.
Treatment
Unlike an ACL tear, surgery isn’t necessary in most cases. After the initial RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) treatment, rebuilding strength through physical therapy is an effective treatment, as well as prevention strategy, for Medial Meniscus Tear.
MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) is a ligament that runs on the inside (medial side) of your knee, connecting the thigh and shin bones and providing stability to the knee. Like the better-known ACL, MCL can develop a tear when enough force is applied.
Causes
MCL injuries are caused by blunt force applied to the medial collateral ligament.
Who are affected
Anyone can develop an MCL injury (in a car accident, for example), but people who play sports are at a higher risk. This includes sports that involve forceful turns and twists of your knee, like soccer, or sports that involve direct force on the outside of your knee, like football.
Some movements are riskier: overstretching (like when you ski), squatting and lifting (as in weightlifting) are some of the high-risk moves for MCL injuries.
Treatment
Most people can recover from MCL tears without surgery. RICE, pain medications, a knee brace or crutches, and physical therapy, are some of the common treatments.
Another quick disambiguation here: “outer side of the knee” means the side away from the center of your body, not on the surface of the knee. The technical term is “lateral.” This category of knee pain includes one of the most well-known knee pain conditions:
ITB Syndrome is possibly the most well-known pain condition of the knee. Iliotibial band (IT band) is a long, strong band of tissue that goes from your hip to the tibia in your shin, running on the outside of your thigh.
ITB Syndrome involves burning pain on the outside of your knee, as well as pain in your thigh and hip. ITBS pain is usually felt during activities, and can continue after you stop.
Causes
When the iliotibial band rubs up against bones while it’s stretched, it can get irritated and develop pain.
Affecting many athletes (especially people who engage in endurance sports), ITB Syndrome can be considered an overuse injury.
Worn-out shoes are often blamed for ITB Syndrome. If you love running, make sure your shoes are in good condition! (Well-fitting shoes will save you from Plantar Fasciitis pain, too.)
In addition to overuse, biomechanical issues like overpronation and flatfoot, weak hips, as well as tight muscles throughout your lower kinetic chain, can lead to ITB Syndrome.
Who are affected
Endurance athletes are particularly at risk, including long-distance runners and cyclists. Downhill runs are particularly risky.
People who recently started working out can develop ITB Syndrome, because they may not have developed enough strength in their kinetic chain to withstand the new level of activity.
Treatment
Physical therapy, which builds strength in the muscles and tendons that support the IT band, relieves pain, and releases tightness, is the gold standard of treatment for ITBS. In the acute stage, RICE and pain medications also have a role.
Sometimes confused with Runner’s Knee, Jumper’s Knee is another repetitive stress injury of the knee. The technical term is Patellar Tendonitis.
It affects the tendon that connects the kneecap (patella) to the shin bone (tibia), causing pain, and sometimes stiffness, in the lower part of the knee.
Causes
Jumper’s Knee occurs when the patellar tendon is irritated and inflamed from repetitive stress of jumping. Weakness somewhere in the kinetic chain is the root cause of Jumper’s Knee.
Who are affected
Like the name suggests, people who play sports that involve lots of jumping are at an elevated risk: basketball, volleyball, track sports, and gymnastics. If you pick up one of these sports as a hobby, make sure to accompany your practice with strength training, so that you’re building capacity to withstand the new and additional stress you’re putting your knee through.
Men and people over 40 are more likely to develop the condition.
Treatment
Similar to other knee pain conditions, physical therapy is effective for symptom relief and resolution of the root cause. A knee brace, pain medications, and RICE are also helpful, especially in the early stage.
Some knee conditions cause diffuse pain that’s difficult to pinpoint. When you have general knee pain, PTs may suspect conditions like osteoarthritis, or bursitis (inflammation of the fluid-filled sacs in your joints). With Bursitis, pain is often accompanied by swelling and tenderness where the inflamed bursa is located.
As we've seen, knee pain can be difficult to diagnose, because many causes share similar symptoms, and knee pain can arise from issues in other parts of your body. You can use the knee pain location chart to narrow down the possibilities, or take our knee pain quiz.
If you still have pain after some time with at-home treatment, consult a physical therapist, sports medicine doctor, or orthopedist to make sure you're making progress.
Knee pain causes by location: where exactly you feel the pain can provide a clue to the cause. However, this can be tricky, as many knee injuries share similar symptoms, and when you compensate for the pain, your pain can shift locations.
Front of the knee pain: pain at or in the kneecap can be caused by several common overuse injuries, including Runners' Knee and ACL tear.
Outer knee pain: one famous cause of pain on the lateral side of the knee is the ITB Syndrome, which primarily affects endurance athletes.
Physical therapy for knee pain: though some knee injuries like ACL tears require surgery for full recovery, physical therapy is an effective, non-invasive treatment for many of the knee pain conditions.
Luke Ferdinands, Physical Therapist & Co-Founder
A New Zealand-trained physical therapist with over 20 years of experience, Luke developed the Alleviate Method to bring the gold standard of physical therapy care to everyone's home. Luke leads the development of physical tools and digital physical therapy content, focusing on driving clinical outcomes for people with chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions like Tennis Elbow, Plantar Fasciitis, Runner's Knee, and more.
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