PainScience.com explores the surprisingly weird science of many kinds of chronic pain and injury, from fibromyalgia to runner’s knee. The site is a library of a couple hundred deep-dive articles for both patients and healthcare professionals, informal but heavily referenced and constantly updated for 20 years.
So how thick is the patellofemoral joint cartilage? The whole knee joint has the thickest articular cartilage in the human body, and it’s thickest of all under the kneecap. The patellofemoral joint cartilage is at least 2mm thick in most people, and perhaps double that in some, probably the younger and larger.
Kneecap tracking is at the heart of the conventional wisdom about patellofemoral pain. Shame it’s mostly nonsense.
Various types of knee replacement surgeries (arthroplasties) are a popular choice for people with intractable knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. Both partial and total knee replacement (PKR, TKR) are common. As the technology improves, it’s also becoming available to younger patients. This is a huge industry, delivering hundreds of thousands of knee replacements annually in the US, and ...
A very detailed guide to iliotibial band syndrome (runner’s knee) for both patients & pros: facts and myths, science and treatment options.
The complete guide to patellofemoral pain syndrome (runner’s knee) for patients & pros: facts and myths, science & treatment options.
A neglected cause of lateral knee pain Injury to the PTFJ is “an often-forgotten cause of lateral knee pain,” 2 and yet the PTFJ is not really a knee joint — it’s just nearby. If the knee was New York, the PTFJ would be Queens. Trauma to the knee can leave the PTFJ untouched, and vice versa.