Causes - Symptoms
Some common causes of knee pain and injuries include:

A blow to the knee, either from contact during sports, a fall or a car accident
Repeated stress or overuse, which may occur from playing sports or if your work or hobby requires doing the same activity over and over again
Sudden turning, pivoting, stopping, cutting from side to side, which happens frequently during certain sports
Awkward landings from a fall or from jumping during sports, such as basketball
Rapidly growing bones, which are especially prone to injury during sports
Degeneration from aging

Symptoms
Some of the more common knee injuries and their signs and symptoms include the following:

Ligament injuries. Your knee contains four ligaments — tough bands of tissue that connect your thighbone (femur) to your lower leg bones (tibia and fibula). You have two collateral ligaments — one on the inside (medial collateral ligament) and one on the outside (lateral collateral ligament) of each knee. The other two ligaments are inside your knee and cross each other as they stretch diagonally from the bottom of your thighbone to the top of your shinbone (tibia). The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) connects to the back of your shinbone, and the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) connects near the front of your shinbone. A tear in one of these ligaments, which may be caused by a fall or contact trauma, is likely to cause:

Immediate pain that worsens when you try to walk or bend your knee
A popping sound
An inability to bear weight on the injured knee
A feeling that the knee might buckle or give way
Tendon injuries (tendinitis). Tendinitis is irritation and inflammation of one or more tendons — the thick, fibrous cords that attach muscles to bones. Athletes, such as especially runners, skiers and cyclists, are prone to develop inflammation in the patellar tendon, which connects the quadriceps muscle on the front of the thigh to the larger lower leg bone (tibia). If your knee pain is caused by tendinitis, some of the signs and symptoms include:

Pain, in one or both knees
Swelling in the front of the knee or just below the kneecap
Worsening pain when you jump, run, squat or climb stairs
An inability to completely extend or straighten your knee
Meniscus injuries. The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of cartilage that curves within your knee joint. Meniscus injuries involve tears in the cartilage, which can occur in various places and configurations. Signs and symptoms of this type of injury include:

Pain
Mild to moderate swelling that occurs slowly, as long as 24 to 36 hours after the injury
An inability to straighten the knee completely; the knee may feel locked in place
Bursitis. Some knee injuries cause inflammation in the bursae, the small sacs of fluid that cushion the outside of your knee joint so that tendons and ligaments glide smoothly over the joint. Bursitis can lead to:

Warmth
Swelling
Redness
Pain, even at rest
Aching or stiffness when you walk
Considerable pain when you kneel or go up and down stairs
Fever, pain and swelling if the bursa located over your kneecap bone (prepatellar bursa) becomes infected
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