♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists,
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna talk about,
what is causing the pain behind your knee, and how to tell.
So there's many different issues,
that could be causing pain behind your knee.
The point of this video,
is that you're not gonna self-diagnose.
It's just going to help you when they,
when you see a professional --
- Give you some background information.
- Right, right.
So we'll give you some of the common reasons,
and again, so you'll be going to your,
doctor's appointment informed.
- Right.
- So one of them,
one's that I hear about a lot,
is it actually, do you feel a bump behind the knee,
and, or, fluid behind the knee, and that's a cyst.
A cyst is usually the result of a problem
they have inside the knee joint.
So it could be arthritis or something like that.
And these conditions cause inflammation and increased fluid,
and that fluid seeps into a bursa behind the knee.
What's a bursa?
- You're gonna, you want me, - I can say it.
It's a fluid-filled sac.
- Right, it's all joint,
you have them all over your body, joints,
and they help provide a lubrication means,
for a tendon or a ligament goes over a bone,
but they're very,
can be very painful when they get inflamed or filled up.
- The problem with the, the cyst behind the knee.
It's a, one has a one-way valve.
So fluid goes in, but it can't come back out again, Brad.
So it's very difficult. - Mmm.
- That's why it often has to be drained.
And it's called the Baker's cyst.
I don't, I dont-Bakers get it?
Where did that come from?
- (laughs) That I don't know.
I, I baker's cyst is very, I mean,
I knew about that before I was in therapy or, you know,
just because it's commonly used. - Sure.
Arthritis, just plain old arthritis can cause pain
behind your knee and can cause the baker's cyst too.
But arthritis is generally worse with weight-bearing,
you know, like when you put weight on and leg,
it's going to get worse.
Generally, it feels better once you're off of it.
It's kind of stiff in the mornings quite often. - Yep.
- Or stiff with the whole movement. - Sure
- A cartilage tear.
You might actually tear the cartilage
in your knee, the meniscus.
It might be due to trauma
or it might be due to just simple wear and tears
as you get older they start to wear out.
- I just had one of my patients,
he was putting things into the trunk,
he hyper-extended his knees,
it went backwards slightly,
pain behind his knee for a number of weeks.
I mean, it was a pretty obvious to him that it came from,
from that incident, that microtrauma, if it wasn't severe.
But it stretched it and he was painful.
- Yeah. With a cartilage tear,
you know, you could have swelling, pain,
decreased motion because the cartilage could kind of get
folded up or block the movement a little bit. - Right.
- You could get locking of your knee, like, locks up.
You can hear a creaking or popping of the knee.
All of these things--
- As we get older, it's not uncommon.
Those noises.
- So one test, you can perform it on,
some of you might be listening on a podcast,
but I can describe it to you.
It's called the duck walk or the children's test.
Basically it's designed to stress the cartilage
in the back of the knee. - Okay.
- So all you do is you squat with the knees turned out,
to the sides and you can hold onto something
while you're doing this.
And if you can't get down at all because the pain,
that's a sign right there.
You might have torn cartilage. - Sure.
- But if he can get down, you try to walk like this.
- And if you don't feel steady, don't do it.
Obviously it's not worth falling.
- Yeah, safety first.
We don't want, we're trying to leave your body of pain.
Not try to cause pain. - Right.
- So, all right, again.
So if you feel clicking or increased pain,
you may have some cartilage tears, so.
A ligament tear, that's generally caused by trauma.
And that's not something that just develops. - Right?
- So you know, that'd be more of an athletic accident
or athletic injury.
- Yep. Or maybe a fall or you
caught yourself and you nearly fell
and sometimes you don't fall, but you just--
- Hyper extend your knee.
- Yup, or try to catch yourself
and there's a jerk on your leg.
You know, something like that could cause it.
- Yeah. So there's four ligaments
and we don't need to go over those,
but that would be something that doctor, uh check it out.
With ligament tears, the pain tends to be sudden and severe.
So it's usually you might even hear a pop or snap.
So it's usually pretty easy to diagnose.
You could have a simple muscle strain tear or tendon tear
behind the knee.
- A hamstring issue, which you know, is pretty common.
It's, you know, those low hamstrings are probably not as
common as the mid or the upper.
- Right and also your calf muscles. - Sure.
- Those up, across your knee,
a lot of people don't know that.
So you may find a point tenderness
in the calf or the hamstring muscle.
Again, something to keep in mind.
The last thing I want to mention is
it could be a blood clot,
which you can feel in the calf sometimes
and behind the knee. - Right.
- Less common.
We did do a video,
"Is a blood clot causing the pain in your leg?"
You can check it out.
It's as part of the series of videos on knee pain.
And so go to bobandbrad.com,
go to the program section,
you'll find our one on knee pain.
It was like 30 to 40 videos, check them out.
Watch the ones that only pertain to you.
- The title will be clear.
Look at the title.
If it pertains to your question, watch it.
And right next that you can click on a PDF printout
and you'll get a review of the whole video,
including the exercises.
It's very handy to have and keep it.
And you don't have to go back and look at us.
You can just--
- And what are we charging for this now Brad?
- Good point Bob.
We are doing absolutely no charge, not even your email,
which is pretty unusual.
- We don't want anything from you.
We just want good vibes. - Right?
Yup, there you go.
- All right.
Check it out.
(upbeat outro music)