Part of IT band syndrome

Outer knee pain: IT band, meniscus or ligament?

The story usually sorts these three out, and the amount of pain does not. An IT band problem creeps up over weeks in someone who has been running or riding, sits on one tender point above the joint line, and arrives at a fairly predictable distance into the session. A lateral meniscus tear usually has a moment: a twist, a deep squat, a landing, and then a knee that stiffens and swells over the next few hours or days, catches, locks or gives way. An injury to the ligament on the outside of the knee follows a force applied to the inside of the knee that pushes it outward, with pain and tenderness on the outer side and a feeling that the knee is not solid. Four patterns mean today rather than next week: a knee locked so you cannot fully straighten it, a knee that swelled within a few hours of a twist or blow, a knee that keeps giving way, and a knee that is hot and swollen or comes with a temperature. The fast swelling one goes to an emergency department rather than to an appointment, and so does a knee that someone else can straighten but that you cannot lift or hold straight yourself, because that is a torn tendon rather than a blocked joint. None of these three can be confirmed at home, so what follows is what to watch for and report, not a self-test.

Warning signs, and when to get help

IT band or meniscus: how did the pain start?

Start here, because the onset sorts these three faster than anything else about them.

An IT band problem creeps. People describe a few runs where the outside of the knee niggled near the end, then a few where it arrived earlier, then one where they had to walk home. Geisler's 2021 clinical review puts a change in training at the center of the history, naming sudden increases in volume, hill running and particularly downhill, and banked or cambered surfaces. There is no single moment to point at.

A meniscus tear usually has one. A twist with the foot planted, a deep squat, getting up awkwardly from kneeling, or a landing. OrthoInfo says you might feel a pop at the time, that most people can still walk on the injured knee, and that over 2 to 3 days the knee gradually becomes stiffer and more swollen. The NHS notes the same thing about the timing of the swelling: it may not start for a few hours or days.

A ligament injury on the outside of the knee has a mechanism you can usually describe. OrthoInfo says a lateral collateral ligament tear results from a force to the inside of the knee that pushes the joint outward, so someone was tackled, or a knee was struck, or a foot caught while the body kept going.

There is one trap in all of this. A tear can happen without a dramatic injury in a knee that already has some wear, and a meniscus tear without an injury is the page for that version. So no story rules a tear out. A clear story makes one more likely, and that is a different claim.

Where is the sore point, exactly?

Three locations, and they are close enough together that people mix them up but far enough apart that a clinician does not.

Above the joint line, on the outside. Roughly a finger's width or two above where the knee bends, over the bony bump on the end of the thighbone. Geisler describes IT band pain as sharp and focal over that bump, reproduced on pressing it and on the Noble test, which is a clinician's maneuver.

On the joint line itself. Run a finger into the crease on the outside of the knee with the knee bent, and that is the joint line. Bunt and colleagues (2018) list joint line tenderness with medial or lateral pain as what points toward a meniscal tear, which is why the few centimeters between these first two spots matter so much.

Lower and further back, on the bony knob on the outside of the shin and the strip of ligament running up from it. That is the territory of the lateral collateral ligament, and OrthoInfo lists tenderness on the injured side among its signs.

Press your own knee once, before the appointment, so that you can say where it hurts. That is not a diagnostic test, and one go is enough: prodding a sore knee all week tells you nothing new. Outer knee pain walks through everything else that lives in this area.

Does the knee catch, lock, swell or give way?

These four behaviors belong to the joint, and they are what divides the three conditions.

An IT band problem is outside the joint. Muhle and colleagues (1999) imaged 16 patients and found the abnormal signal or fluid confined to a compartment-like space bounded on the outside by the band itself and on the inside by the joint capsule, the lateral collateral ligament and the bony bump, so it is next to the joint rather than in it. A knee with this problem generally moves normally. It hurts in a band of movement and at a point.

A meniscus tear can behave mechanically. OrthoInfo lists catching or locking of the knee, a feeling that it is giving way, and trouble moving through the full range. The NHS adds the knee giving way when you try to stand and a crunching or clicking feeling. Swelling, locking and giving way is the page that covers those symptoms properly, including what makes a knee give way and how fast meniscal swelling comes on.

Locking has a precise meaning and it is worth being exact, because people use the word loosely. The panel behind the 2017 BMJ clinical practice guideline on arthroscopic surgery described a true locked knee as being objectively unable to fully extend, and they singled that group out as the one possible exception to their strong recommendation against arthroscopy in degenerative knee disease. Their own wording was stricter than the way people use the word: locking, clicking and other mechanical symptoms sat inside that recommendation, and only a persistent, objective locked knee sat outside it. A knee that catches for a second and then frees itself is a different thing, and the warning list below says so in its own words.

Two other knees get called locked and are not, and the difference decides how fast you need to be seen. One is a knee too swollen and sore to straighten, which hurts at the end of the movement but keeps going a little further when someone eases it, and which straightens as the swelling goes down. A true block stops dead, and it stops for whoever is moving the leg, not just for you.

The second one runs the other way and matters more. A knee that someone else can straighten out fully, while you cannot lift the straight leg off the bed or hold the knee straight against gravity yourself, is not a meniscus that has jammed. Against gravity means held up by your own thigh muscle, with nothing under the knee to hold it there. That is the tendon that straightens the knee, it has its own emergency line at the foot of this page, and it goes to an emergency department rather than to an appointment.

One more thing about that 2017 guideline, since it gets quoted loosely in both directions. The panel wrote that it did not consider young patients with sports related injuries, or patients with major trauma at any age. So if the knee was injured in a tackle, a bad landing or a fall, a strong recommendation against arthroscopy for worn knees is not a statement about yours, and the paragraph lower down on early repair is the one that applies.

Swelling is on the same list, with the timing attached. A knee that swelled within a few hours of a twist, a fall or a blow is an emergency department line, not a wait-and-see line.

What about the ligament on the outside of the knee?

The outer ligament is the least common of the three, and it is the one that gets forgotten.

OrthoInfo is clear about how rare it is: the lateral collateral ligament is involved in less than 2 percent of knee injuries, while the ligament on the inside of the knee accounts for up to 43 to 52 percent. Our MCL sprain program covers that inner one. Bunt and colleagues (2018) describe lateral pain after a varus force, meaning a force that pushes the knee outward, as the lateral collateral ligament pattern.

What it feels like, in OrthoInfo's own list: a pop or a feeling that the knee gives out, pain on the outside, swelling over the injury, instability, tenderness on that side, and stiffness such as not being able to straighten or bend the knee fully. Grade 1 is a mild stretch with the ligament intact and is usually managed without surgery. Grade 2 is a partial tear, and non-surgical care is an option when the knee is stable, which OrthoInfo describes as around a week off weight bearing, a hinged knee brace and physical therapy.

Grade 3 is where a decision actually has to be made, and it is not one anybody can make from reading. OrthoInfo describes a grade 3 sprain as a complete tear, the ligament torn in half or pulled directly off the bone, with an unstable knee, and it keeps non-operative management for grade 1 and grade 2 tears that are stable. It names two things that move the answer toward surgery: the ligament has pulled directly off the bone, or there are other injuries alongside the lateral ligament tear. Surgeons weigh that differently, depending on how far the joint opens up when it is tested and on what else turns out to be torn, so the grade and the company it keeps are what settle it, and both come from an examination and usually a scan. Your own surgeon's assessment decides this, and nothing written here changes that.

There is one more reason not to leave a hard blow to the outside of the knee alone. The nerve that lifts the foot runs close to the bone on that side, which is why numbness, pins and needles or weakness in the outer shin, the top of the foot or the toes has its own same-day line on the warning list below.

We have to be straight with you about this one. There is no program on this site for a lateral collateral ligament injury, so there is nothing here to hand you, and a program written for one of the other injuries is the wrong thing to follow for this one. If the mechanism and the signs above match what happened to you, get it assessed, because the management depends on the grade and on whether anything else went with it. A knee that was struck hard enough to injure one ligament often injured another, and telling a meniscus tear, an ACL and an MCL apart covers that combination.

What will a physio or doctor do to tell them apart?

Mostly history and hands, with imaging kept for the questions hands cannot answer.

For the band, Geisler describes the diagnosis as resting on the history, pressing the bony bump above the joint and a positive Noble test that reproduces the pain. He is also explicit about one test to leave alone: the results of the Ober test should not be factored into the diagnostic process, because its ability to tell you anything about knee motion has been challenged. If someone measures your band tightness and gives you a number, that is the test being asked to do more than it can.

For the meniscus, OrthoInfo describes the McMurray test: the examiner bends the knee, then straightens and rotates it to put tension on a torn meniscus, and pain, clicking or a clunking sensation can indicate a tear. For the outer ligament, a sideways stress is applied to see whether the joint opens up.

All of these are clinician tests, performed in context and read alongside everything else. None of them is something to try on your own knee at home. Bunt and colleagues set out what the initial evaluation covers: age, where and when and how the pain started, mechanical and whole-body symptoms, swelling, the injury mechanism, and past medical and surgical history. They also name the situations for urgent referral, which include severe pain, immediate swelling, instability or an inability to bear weight after trauma, and signs of joint infection such as fever with swelling and redness and limited movement.

Does IT band syndrome show up on an MRI?

Often yes, but not as a tear, and knowing the difference stops a scan report from confusing you further.

Muhle and colleagues (1999) reported what the band problem looks like on MRI in 16 patients: poorly defined signal abnormality or a circumscribed fluid collection in a compartment-like space outside the joint, bounded by the band on the outside. In the same study, six donated knees were imaged at full extension, 30 degrees and 60 degrees of bend and no primary bursa was found between the bony bump and the band in any of them, checked against sections under the microscope. So the changes are in the soft tissue beside the joint, not inside it.

A meniscal tear is a different picture, inside the joint, and a joint effusion collects in the joint space rather than beside it. That contrast is what makes a scan useful for this question when one is needed.

When a scan is needed is a separate matter. Bunt and colleagues describe plain X-rays as generally reserved for chronic pain lasting more than six weeks or for acute trauma meeting a decision rule such as the Ottawa Knee Rule, and say MRI is rarely needed urgently. A normal scan does not mean nothing is wrong, and an abnormal scan in someone with no matching symptoms does not mean that is the problem. The clinician who examined you is the one who can put the two together.

Which of these needs seeing today

If you read nothing else here, read this part.

Four patterns go the same day or straight to an emergency department. A knee that is locked, meaning stuck bent and unable to fully straighten even after you gently try. A knee that became very swollen within a few hours of a twist, a fall or a blow, or where you felt a pop or a snap. A knee that keeps giving way under you, or gave way after a recent injury, or gives way and is also very painful or swollen. And a knee that is hot, red and swollen or comes with a high temperature or feeling shivery.

One more goes straight to an emergency department, and it is the one most easily mistaken for a locked knee. A knee that someone else can straighten out fully, but that you cannot lift off the bed as a straight leg or hold straight against gravity yourself, particularly after a pop or a tearing feeling just above or just below the kneecap. That is the tendon that straightens the knee, not the meniscus and not a ligament. It is repaired surgically, exercises do not treat it, and a repair done soon after the injury does better than a late one. Its line is on the warning list below.

The locked knee is the one with a window attached. The 2019 ESSKA consensus on traumatic meniscus tears sets preservation as the goal and advises that when a repair is needed, it should be done as early as possible. The same consensus found that stable lateral tears left untreated had a better prognosis than medial ones, which is a reason for assessment rather than for alarm. Either way, a decision that can be made early should not be delayed by a few weeks of waiting to see whether it settles.

Early is not the same as a deadline, though, and no date should be read into it. Whether a tear can be stitched at all depends on the kind of tear and on the state of the meniscus it sits in, which is OrthoInfo's point, and the outer third of the meniscus is the part with the blood supply that lets a tear there heal or hold stitches. The ESSKA consensus made the opposite point to a deadline as well: it states that numerous tears once considered irreparable should be repaired, and names older tears among them. So if weeks have already gone by, that is a reason to get the knee looked at now, not a reason to assume the chance has passed.

The full warning list is at the foot of this page and it is grouped by how soon each item needs attention. It also carries lines that have nothing to do with these three conditions and everything to do with who lands on a page about knee pain: a swollen, warm, tender calf, numbness or weakness in the outer shin or the top of the foot, a growing teenager with hip or thigh pain as well as knee pain, and night pain that keeps getting worse. Read it.

What to do while you wait for an assessment

Stop the thing that produced it, rather than easing off it. If there was a moment and the knee has swollen, catches or feels unreliable, that means no running, no sport and no loaded squatting until it has been looked at.

If what happened was a blow to the inside of the knee and the outer side is the tender part, put sideways and twisting load on that list too: cutting, pivoting on a planted foot, and anything that lets the knee fall outward, since that is the direction the outer ligament holds against. And if the leg feels as though it might not hold you, use crutches or a stick while you wait rather than testing whether it holds.

OrthoInfo's own non-operative plan for the milder grades of this injury starts with a week off weight bearing, so keeping the weight off it before anyone has graded it is the cautious side of the same advice. Knee pain when squatting explains why that movement in particular is worth leaving alone for now.

If there was no moment and the pattern is the creeping, load-timed one, the band is the likelier story and the handling is different: shorter and flatter sessions rather than a full stop, with downhill and camber left out. The IT band syndrome program sets that out in stages, and knee pain after running covers the running side of it.

Do not start a knee strengthening program on a knee that locks, swells quickly or gives way. Those symptoms get assessed first, and loading a joint that is mechanically blocked is how a small problem becomes a longer one.

Write four things down before the appointment, because nobody can reconstruct them later. Whether there was a single moment and what you were doing. Where the sore point is, pressed with one finger. Whether the knee has caught, locked, swollen or given way, and how soon after the injury the swelling appeared. And what makes it worse now: a distance, a depth of bend, a direction, or a surface.

When to see a physio or physical therapist

Book an assessment for any outer knee pain that lasted more than two or three weeks, and sooner for any of it that came with a moment. A physio (physical therapist) can separate these three in a single appointment far more reliably than a symptom list can, and the answer changes what you do with the next three months.

If the picture matches none of the three above, three other conditions are worth knowing about. Knee osteoarthritis is the usual explanation for a stiff, achy knee in an older adult, including in the outer compartment. Patellofemoral pain sits around or behind the kneecap and is the condition most often confused with the band problem under the loose name runner's knee. And if you have had a reconstruction, ACL reconstruction rehab is the page for that recovery.

If you have had knee surgery of any kind, a repair, a reconstruction, a cartilage trim or a replacement, your surgeon's or hospital team's own instructions come first, including where they differ from anything on this page. Anything new in an operated knee goes to that team, not to a web page. New pain, swelling, heat or giving way in a knee that has been operated on is a same-day call to them, for the same reason the warning list sends a hot, red and swollen knee for advice the same day: an infection, or a problem with the repair or the implant, has to be ruled out before anyone treats it as a strain. Nothing here is a diagnosis or personal advice. It is what you can watch for, and which of it will not wait.

Related exercise programs

Warning signs

Get emergency help now

Emergency: pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs, numbness or altered feeling around your genitals or bottom, or new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels. The same applies if you lose feeling in one leg. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away. These can be signs of pressure on the nerves at the base of the spine (cauda equina syndrome).
Emergency: you felt a sudden pop or tearing feeling just above or below your kneecap, you can see or feel a dip there, the kneecap seems to have moved up toward the thigh or to sag lower than usual, or you suddenly cannot straighten your knee or lift your leg out straight. Stop exercising and go to an emergency department straight away, even if you can still walk, as this can be a torn tendon at the front of the knee, either below the kneecap (patellar tendon) or above it (quadriceps tendon). Do not drive yourself. A repair usually does better if it is done soon after the injury.
Emergency: the knee has moved out of place, looks misshapen or is pointing at an odd angle, or you have tingling or no feeling in the knee, leg or toes, or your foot turns cold, pale or blue. Go to an emergency department straight away. Do not drive yourself: ask someone to drive you or call an ambulance.
Emergency: the knee became very swollen very quickly, within a few hours of a twist, fall or blow, or you felt a pop or snap. Go to an emergency department straight away. Do not drive yourself: ask someone to drive you or call an ambulance.
Emergency: the kneecap has slipped out of place, even if it went back by itself. If it is still out of place, go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. If it went back by itself, get medical advice the same day.
Emergency: you are still growing and have pain that wakes you at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing. If you also have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services or go to an emergency department.

Get help today

Same day: the pain started with a fall, a twist or a blow to the knee, or you cannot put weight on the leg. Get medical advice the same day.
Same day: the knee is locked, which means it is stuck bent and you cannot fully straighten it, even after gently trying to move it, or you cannot bend or straighten the leg at all. Get assessed the same day by a doctor, at urgent care or at an emergency department. A torn piece of meniscus can get caught in the joint and block it, and when a tear like this can be repaired, it should be done as early as possible. A knee that catches for a moment and then frees itself can happen with a meniscus tear. That is not the same as a locked knee, but tell your physio or doctor about it.
Same day: the knee keeps giving way under you, or it gave way after a recent injury, or it gives way and is also very painful or swollen. Get medical advice the same day. If it only happens now and then, with no recent injury and no swelling, it is not an emergency, but book an assessment with a physio or doctor in the next few days.
Same day: the knee clicks painfully when you bend or straighten it. Get medical advice the same day. Painless clicking on its own is common.
Same day: the knee swells up with no clear reason, especially if you take medicine to thin your blood. Get medical advice the same day.
Same day: new numbness, pins and needles or weakness in the outer shin, the top of the foot or the toes. Get medical advice the same day. The nerve that lifts the foot passes close to the bone on the outside of the knee, so numbness or weakness there needs checking.
Same day: a leg or foot that is getting weaker, for example your foot drags, catches on the ground or slaps down when you walk (foot drop). Get medical advice the same day. If the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.
Same day: the knee is hot, red and swollen, or you have knee pain with a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. This can be a sign of infection in the joint, which needs treatment quickly.
Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen or getting more swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
Same day: you are a teenager who is still growing and you have a limp, or pain in the hip, groin or thigh as well as the knee. Get an urgent appointment with a doctor the same day, and stay off sport and these exercises until you have been checked. If you cannot put weight on the leg, have a high temperature or feel very unwell, go to an emergency department. Some hip problems in growing teenagers, such as a slipped growth plate at the top of the thigh bone (slipped capital femoral epiphysis), are felt in the knee and need checking quickly.
Same day: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. If you are being treated for cancer now, contact your cancer team the same day.

Book an appointment

Within a day or two: you are still growing and have pain that wakes you at night, pain at rest that keeps getting worse, or a lump or swelling around the knee or thigh that keeps growing. See a doctor within a day or two. Ask for an urgent appointment rather than the next routine one, and say what the pain does at night and whether a lump is getting bigger. Do the same if the pain comes with looking pale, unusual tiredness, fevers with no clear cause, bruising or bleeding easily, or weight loss. Bone pain that is worse at night, or a new lump, needs checking to rule out rarer causes such as a bone tumor or a blood cancer (leukemia).
Within a day or two: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. If you have had cancer, now or in the past, see your doctor sooner, within a day or two, and mention it, even if the pain is not getting worse. Do the same if you have knee pain and are losing weight without trying, even if it does not hurt at night.
Within a few days: pain at night or at rest that keeps getting worse. See your doctor within a few days.
Within 2 weeks: pain that spreads from your lower back or buttock down the outside of the thigh or below the knee, especially with numbness, tingling or pins and needles in the leg or foot. The pain may be coming from your back rather than the knee. Book an appointment with a doctor or physio. If your leg or foot is getting weaker, for example your foot drags, catches on the ground or slaps down when you walk (foot drop), get medical advice the same day, and if the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.

Common questions

What is the difference between an IT band problem and a meniscus tear?

One sits outside the joint and one sits inside it, and that shows up in how the knee behaves rather than in how sore it is. Geisler's 2021 review describes IT band pain as sharp and focal over the bony bump above the joint, coming on after a period of running, with the knee itself working normally. The NHS lists a meniscus tear as pain or tenderness with stiffness or swelling, difficulty bending, straightening or moving the knee, the knee giving way when you try to stand, and a crunching or clicking feeling. Mechanical behavior like that belongs to the joint. The NHS also says the symptoms can be similar to sprains, which is why an examination settles this and a symptom list does not.

Can an IT band problem cause pain behind the knee?

Not as its usual pattern. The band's attachments are on the outer side and the front of the shin just below the joint, so the pain it produces is felt on the outside of the knee rather than in the back of it. Pain behind the knee has other explanations and where a meniscus tear hurts, including behind the knee covers one of them. A newly swollen, warm or tender calf is a different matter: that has its own line on the warning list below, because a blood clot needs ruling out the same day.

Is IT band syndrome serious?

It is not usually dangerous, and it is not a joint injury, which is the part most people want to know. What makes it worth taking seriously is that it tends not to settle while the running or riding that provokes it carries on unchanged, so people lose months rather than weeks. The IT band syndrome program sets out the staged approach and what the evidence behind it is. The catching, locking, swelling and giving way get so much room here because they belong to problems that can be more serious, and those are the ones with a timing attached.

How do you know if the ligament on the outside of the knee is injured?

From the mechanism more than from the pain. OrthoInfo describes a lateral collateral ligament tear as resulting from a force applied to the inside of the knee that pushes it outward, and lists a pop or a feeling that the knee gives out, pain and swelling on the outside, tenderness on the injured side, a sense of instability, and stiffness such as not being able to straighten or bend fully. It also notes the lateral ligament is much less commonly injured than the one on the inside, at less than 2 percent of knee injuries against up to 43 to 52 percent for the medial ligament. The varus stress test that checks it is an examination performed by a clinician, not something to try on your own knee, and we have no program for this injury on this site, so an assessment is the next step.

References

NHS. Meniscus tear (knee cartilage damage). Page last reviewed 02 September 2026. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/meniscus-tear/
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Meniscus Tears. OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/meniscus-tears/
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Collateral Ligament Injuries. OrthoInfo. https://www.orthoinfo.org/en/diseases--conditions/collateral-ligament-injuries/
Bunt CW, Jonas CE, Chang JG. Knee pain in adults and adolescents: the initial evaluation. American Family Physician. 2018;98(9):576-585. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2018/1101/p576.html
Geisler PR. Current Clinical Concepts: Synthesizing the Available Evidence for Improved Clinical Outcomes in Iliotibial Band Impingement Syndrome. Journal of Athletic Training. 2021;56(8):805-815. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-548-19
Muhle C, Ahn JM, Yeh L, Bergman GA, Boutin RD, Schweitzer M, Jacobson JA, Haghighi P, Trudell DJ, Resnick D. Iliotibial band friction syndrome: MR imaging findings in 16 patients and MR arthrographic study of six cadaveric knees. Radiology. 1999;212(1):103-110. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiology.212.1.r99jl29103
Siemieniuk RAC, Harris IA, Agoritsas T, Poolman RW, Brignardello-Petersen R, Van de Velde S, Buchbinder R, Englund M, Lytvyn L, Quinlan C, Helsingen L, Knutsen G, Olsen NR, Macdonald H, Hailey L, Wilson HM, Lydiatt A, Kristiansen A. Arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee arthritis and meniscal tears: a clinical practice guideline. BMJ. 2017;357:j1982. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1982
Kopf S, Beaufils P, Hirschmann MT, Rotigliano N, Ollivier M, Pereira H, Verdonk R, Darabos N, Ntagiopoulos P, Dejour D, Seil R, Becker R. Management of traumatic meniscus tears: the 2019 ESSKA meniscus consensus. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy. 2020;28(4):1177-1194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-020-05847-3

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-21.

This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.