Knee buckling, knees giving out, a trick knee, weak in the knees — these are all ways we describe knees that are unsteady and feel like they’re going to give out and not support our weight.
Given how much you rely on your knees, this weakness and unsteadiness can have a major impact on your life, especially when you’re in a walking city like New York, which is also full of stairs.
As a leading specialist in knees, William Schell, MD is well-versed in the conditions that can lead to knees that are less than reliable. And as a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Schell is also in a position to restore stability to your knees if they're constantly buckling and giving out.
But surgery isn’t the focus of this blog post — the causes of knee instability is — and we get into those below.
Your knees are the largest joints in your body, and they rely on tough connective tissues called ligaments that attach bone to bone to provide stability.
More specifically, your knees contain:
If you damage any of these ligaments, you can lose stability in your knee, and it can buckle with certain movements. For example, one of the most common knee injuries is a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and this condition can lead to weakness in your knee.
Another common knee injury is a meniscus tear. Each of your knees contains two pieces of cartilage that act as shock absorbers between your shin bones and thigh bones.
If you damage this soft tissue, you can run into knee issues that include giving out as well as symptoms on the other end of the spectrum, like stiffness in your knee.
Your knee joints have proactive membranes that surround and encapsulate them, and each of these membranes contains four folds called plicas.
If one of these folds becomes irritated, it can lead to plica syndrome, which counts knee instability as one of its telltale signs, especially on stairs.
While you might not have heard of plica syndrome, experts believe that the issue affects about 10% of the general population at some point in their lives.
As of five years ago, there were 528 million people around the world who were dealing with osteoarthritis (OA), which is also called wear-and-tear arthritis. While the human body contains many joints, the knees are the most affected by OA with 365 million people reporting the issue.
While joint pain and inflammation are the primary complaints when it comes to knee OA, weakness and instability are also common. This is especially true if you're limiting activities due to knee OA, which can lead to further weakness because you’re steadily losing muscle support due to lack of exercise.
There are more knee issues that can lead to buckling and instability, but we’re going to stop here because your next best step is to come see us for a thorough evaluation of your knee issue.
To get that ball rolling, please contact our New York City office, which is located on Columbus Circle on the Upper West Side, to schedule an appointment with Dr. Schell.
