The symptoms
In addition to the pain behind the kneecap, swelling of the knee joint and a crunching, rubbing sound often occurs during the examination. If these symptom triad occur, this can be interpreted as an indication of retropatellar cartilage damage (= cartilage damage behind the patella). The pain that occurs is often dull and diffuse, so that the person affected cannot clearly localize it.
The pain usually increases during sports activities. It also increases during normal movements such as climbing stairs or squatting. These complaints during everyday activities are typical for diseases affecting the kneecap.
Sometimes patients also describe an increasing stiffness of the knee. If, in addition to the cartilage damage, there are also free pieces of cartilage in the joint, this often results in restricted movement, as the joint is blocked by the piece of cartilage and causes pain behind the kneecap. When bending and stretching the knee, large forces act on the kneecap, so that pain behind the kneecap often results during these movements.
If a person did not have a kneecap, stretching the leg would hardly be possible. Pain behind the kneecap does not only occur during sports activities. Especially when climbing stairs or walking downhill, the knee is bent on the one hand and is at the same time exposed to increased pressure compared to normal walking, so that patients with cartilage damage, for example, feel pain, especially when climbing stairs.
When climbing stairs, there is increased tension on the patella and the patellar tendon. Typical knee pain is that it usually occurs during exertion, when greater pressure is applied to the knee while the pain is no longer present when the patient is at rest. Cycling is usually a sport that is recommended for patients with knee pain, as the knee is moved but not exposed to great force, such as when jogging. However, if, for example, a so-called “runner’s knee” is present, in which inflammation of a large tendon plate (tractus iliotibialis) has occurred, pain in the area of the kneecap can occur after prolonged cycling or jogging. These tendons glide over the joint during bending and stretching of the leg, which happens at high frequency during cycling, and hurt accordingly in case of inflammation.
