The crunching, crunching, crunching sound of your knees can be a scary feeling—scary enough to stop you from doing an activity or sport you enjoy to prevent it from getting worse. However, is this a cause for concern?
When someone notices their knee making a sound in the clinic, many statements we hear are “bone to bone” or that the knee is “wearing out.” Research in this area has shown no relationship between knee clicks/creeps, known as Krupitus, and function, activity level, or ability to climb stairs. The physiologic knee fold is usually an average experience and is not associated with pathology or injury of the knee. Knee crepitus per se does not affect knee strength or function; however, the accompanying fear and avoidance behaviors can negatively impact health and activity.
If your crepitus is accompanied by pain, this may lead to further investigation by your physical therapist. The question is whether the noise is pathological or a typical physiological sound. Pathological knee crepitus is often associated with a specific event, event, or injury, such as a popping noise of the ACL or a clicking sound at a point during knee motion, indicating meniscus injury. Pathological crepitus of the knee is usually accompanied by other signs such as swelling and pain.
Physiologic knee crepitus is more common than pathological knee crepitus, and there is usually no noise onset due to injury/event. It has nothing to do with pain. This type of knee crepitus may be caused by tiny bubbles in the fluid surrounding the knee moving or bursting, ligaments on the bone moving, or slightly grasping the sac surrounding the knee. Many people will experience physical crepitus of the knee during their lifetime.
The message about knee creak is that pain is an anomaly to be noted, not crepitus. Tapping or grinding alone is normal and should not impede activity or intensify when no other symptoms accompany it.
What’s that knee creak?
