Does your knee ‘click’ or ‘pop’ and swell or ‘lock’? These symptoms may be caused by plica syndrome.
At Blackberry Clinic we treat musculoskeletal conditions affecting the back, muscles and joints. A full physical assessment and history of the issue will help to lead to an accurate diagnosis.
A plica is a structure in the knee.
It is a membrane between the patella and the tibiofemoral joint.
It is formed in the knee during the embryological phase of development. This tissue forms membranes which divide the knee into 3 compartments: the medial and lateral tibiofemoral compartments and the suprapatellar bursa.
Most of the time this tissue usually disappears at 8-12 weeks of foetal growth, and is eventually resorbed, leaving a single empty area between the femoral and tibial surfaces: a single knee cavity.
In many individuals (in about 50% of the population) this tissue is not fully resorbed and consequently the cavitation of the knee joint remains incomplete.Normally, when healthy, the plica is elastic and allows normal movement of the bones of the tibiofemoral joint with no restriction.
Unfortunately, the plica can become irritated and inflamed due to direct trauma or repetitive stress and this can result in a disorder called the plica syndrome.
The plica syndrome is often the result of excessive use of the knee and is therefore often encountered in people engaged in exercises involving repeated flexion-extension movements such as the ones seen in cycling, running, team sports, gymnastics, swimming and rowing sports and is particularly common in adolescent athletes. It is more commonly seen in teenagers and young adults, even more so in women than in men.
When a plica becomes pathologic, the usual characteristics of the tissue will change due to the inflammatory process. They may become hypertrophic, show increased vascularity, hyalyinisation and lose their typical characteristics of elasticity. As a result they may also become swollen, thickened and fibrotic, and they will most certainly intervene in normal patellar-femoral movement.
Plica syndrome can cause a series of symptoms, such as pain, clicking, popping, effusion, localised swelling, reduced range of motion, intermittent medial joint pain, instability and locking of the patello-femoral joint.
The patients with the plica syndrome often have a sense of instability when walking upstairs, downstairs or slopes.
It should only be considered as the primary cause of the patient’s symptoms when the patient fails to respond to appropriate management of patellofemoral pain.
The good news is that it can be treated.
For treatment of knee pain and symptoms that may be caused by plica syndrome contact your nearest Blackberry Clinic for a full assessment with one of our physical therapists or Sports and Exercise Medicine Doctors.
