Medical Facts

Essential Facts about Pain behind Knee

You must have heard different people complaining about the pain behind knee. The pain behind the knee is a medical ailment. It is characterized by the discomforting and soreness that you will be feeling behind your knee joint. There is not any specification regarding the movement of your legs. By this, we mean that the occurrence of pain in the back of the knee is possible with or without any kind of movement.

Are you curious about the apparent complaints regarding back or knee pain? Then let us tell you that people suffering from this pain may be describing it in the form of discomfort, stiffness, inflammation, soreness, etc. They may also describe it as the increment in the overall warmth inside their knee. This can happen in the form of a burning sensation.

Though the pain behind the knee could seem like a simple pain. Yet, there are different reasons responsible for tightness behind the knee. That is the reason this pain can bring a different set of symptoms in different individuals. Accordingly, your medical specialist will be suggesting different kinds of treatments. For making all these concepts clear for you, we are here with this blog post on the behind-the-knee pain. So please keep reading to have all the information that you need to know.

Brief Description of the Pain behind Knee

Association with the Baker’s Cyst

The discomforting and soreness feeling in the knee joints can be one of the worst things that anyone can be facing. That is the reason it needs special medical attention for prevention of the rising of any serious medical conditions. If you look at it then pain behind the knee can be arising due to Baker’s cyst. Baker’s cyst is actually a mass that you may call the building up of the fluid in the rear region of the knee. This fluid is referred to as the synovial fluid.

Synovial fluid is known for the proper lubrication of your joints. That is why that the friction in the knees is reduced among different cartilages of the joint. Are you curious about the symptoms of these Baker cysts? Well, the simple answer to this is that they are not permanent. You may see them coming and going. The good thing is that these conditions will not be causing any damages to your knee in the long term. However, you should not avoid such conditions because they can be painful and very discomforting.

Association with the Deep Vein Thrombosis

Another main sign that you can associate with the appearance of the pain behind the knee can be the blood clotting happening in the legs. In medical terms, the blood clotting happening in the legs is referred to as deep vein thrombosis. Unlike the previous Baker’s cyst, deep vein thrombosis can be a very harmful situation leading to serious circumstances.

Yes, we did say serious circumstances because the end result of the deep vein thrombosis can be life-threatening in many ways. Deep vein thrombosis is known for breaking loosely and leading to causing another serious condition. This condition is the pulmonary embolism happening inside the lung, leading to heart attack, or even it can cause stroke in different individuals. If you are looking for the symptoms of deep vein thrombosis then we must tell you that Baker’s cyst and deep vein thrombosis have a profound similarity in terms of the appearance of the symptoms.

Symptoms of the Back of Knee Pain

If you browse through your books and online resources you might be finding a wide range of the symptoms of the back of knee pain. In fact, pain behind the knee comes with different symptoms. However, you should not worry as we have classified the symptoms of the pain behind the knee into two categories so that you can easily distinguish them and understand when you need emergency or normal medical care. These two categories are:

  1. Common symptoms of the pain behind knee
  2. Life-threatening symptoms associated with the pain behind knee

So, let us discuss them one by one so that you can have complete knowledge about them. Let’s get started!

Common Symptoms of the Pain behind Knee

Sometimes you will see the symptoms of the pain behind the knee appearing in a normal way. These symptoms usually don’t result in serious life-threatening situations. Yet, you don’t have to overlook them because even if they are not that serious symptoms, still they can cause serious pain and discomfort affecting your overall activities of life. These symptoms include:

  • You will be unable to put any kind of weight over your knees
  • There will be a discomforting pain if you happen to stretch your legs
  • You will feel a considerable reduction in the mobility of the knee. This mobility is inclusive of the wide range of the movements that you do with your knees
  • Unlike normal days, you will be feeling a considerable stiffness in your knees causing pain and discomfort
  • In addition to other symptoms, you will also be feeling extreme swelling and inflammation in your knees

Therefore, you need to consult your medical specialist if your or any of your family or friends face such symptoms.

Life-Threatening Symptoms Associated With the Pain behind Knee

Not all the symptoms of the pain behind the knee can be taken as non-serious. Because there can be some conditions that you should not overlook and you must seek emergency medical care for saving yourself from life-threatening or other unfortunate circumstances. The medical specialist will be able to immediately evaluate and do a quick assessment of the medication and care that you need. However, we must tell you about these life-threatening circumstances:

  • Extreme kind of bruising that happens on the back region of the knee or calf
  • You will be feeling difficulty in breathing
  • There will be an apparent redness happening behind the knee of your legs
  • Prolong warmth happening in one of the knees especially in the rear region of the knees of legs
  • Prolong inflammation occurring in the rear region of the knees or calves. This inflammation will be causing extreme pain and discomfort

Causal Factors of the Pain behind Knees

You might be looking for the specific symptoms of behind-knee pain. Well, the causes of the pain behind the knees can be various. On the basis of these reasons and causes, you feel this comforting pain. However, the physical form of the pain arising due to various causes can be ranging from fairly milder conditions to severe pain. The fairly milder conditions are inclusive of the torn hamstring.

pain behind the knee

However, there is nothing to worry about the torn hamstring because it gives a good response to the rest and another measure of self-care. There are can be other causes of behind knee pain. For example, chronic degenerative conditions. The chronic degenerative conditions are inclusive of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. We must inform you of an interesting fact about rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis signifies a serious autoimmune disorder and thus you must not be overlooking it.

Main Causes

Now let us specifically enlist the causes of the pain behind the knees. They include:

  • Torn hamstring muscle
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Peripheral vascular disease (PAD) also referred to as peripheral vascular disease (PVD)
  • Dithering ligament or cartilage
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Repetitive wave
  • Overdo injury
  • Deep vein thrombosis

Among these causes, peripheral vascular disease (PAD) also referred to as peripheral vascular disease (PVD), and Deep vein thrombosis are the most important and serious causes of the pain behind the knees.

Conditions Leading to Pain Behind Knees

Now it’s time to get to familiarize yourself with some important medical conditions which can result in the pain behind knees.  They are:

Cramps in Legs

If you have a tightening muscular feeling inside your legs and especially around the knee region then they are referred to as legs cramps. You will be amazed to learn that often your calves are prone to cramps because the muscular arrangement is in such a situation. However, there can be cramps in the other muscles also. So, when you have cramps in the legs there is a possibility that they will be reaching you behind the knee as well.

We can see these cramps occurs because of the problems in the nerves of your legs, suffering from dehydration, having any liver disease, infectious disease like tetanus, and also the presence of any obnoxious compounds like mercury floating in your blood.

Jumper’s Knee

Another medical condition ending up in the appearance of the pain behind the knees can be the jumper’s knee. When you have any injury in the tendons of your legs then you will feel a bad connection of the legs muscles. This may lead to a bad situation known as patellar tendonitis. This condition is very common among the players of volleyball or basketball who can get the jumper’s knee by jumping or changing direction.

So a result there is a tearing of the tendons of your leg. They will be leading to a messy and painful situation by means of swelling up leading to an ultimate weakening. You may also be feeling extreme stiffness resulting in pain behind the knees.

Wrapping Up the Blog Post

With this section, we come to the end of our blog post on the pain behind the knees. We have tried to deliver the most important concepts in this blog post so that you may understand that when you will be needing the consultation of a medical specialist. We hope that now you will be in a better position to distinguish between the common and serious life-threatening symptoms of the pain behind the knees. Also, you must now be aware of the causes that are responsible for developing into the discomforting pain behind the knees.

We are always looking forward to your response and thoughts. Therefore, you must not forget to share these thoughts with us. Thank you!

FAQs

How are pain behind the knees and deep vein thrombosis related to one another?

When you have developed the unfortunate situation of deep vein thrombosis, then it can be a serious sign of pain behind the knees. Therefore, you must seek medical care.

What is the physical form of the pain behind the knees?

People who suffer from pain behind the knee often complain about it inform of discomfort, stiffness, inflammation, soreness, etc.

What is the main cause of the pain behind the knees?

The main cause of the pain behind the knees are Torn hamstring muscle, osteoarthritis, peripheral vascular disease (pad) also referred to as peripheral vascular disease (PVD), dithering ligament or cartilage, rheumatoid arthritis, repetitive wave, overdo injury, deep vein thrombosis.

Why do basketball and football players often suffer from pain behind the knees?

Basketball and football players often suffer from pain behind the knees because they develop a condition known as the jumper’s knee.

Mehedi Hasan

Mehedi Hasan is an enthusiastic health blogger and the founder member of WOMS. He likes to share his thoughts to make people inspired about their fitness. He is an experienced writer and author on highly authoritative health blogs.

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