What Causes Pain in Back of Knee?

If you’re dealing with discomfort and pain stemming from the space behind your knees, there’s a good chance you’re dealing with an underlying condition that is a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off.

Knee injuries have the nasty little habit of popping up almost out of nowhere on you, literally exploding when you least expect it. ACL injuries – like those you’ll find in most superstar athletes that have the ACL “pop” while playing – are a perfect example of this kind of unforeseeable injury.

At the same time though, the odds are pretty good that even the most heinous knee injury can be avoided and mitigated ahead of time, if only you’ll pay attention to the warning signs your body is already giving you.

Knee pain behind your knees is exactly the kind of signal you want to be on the lookout for, as it’s a major precursor to the types of catastrophic nightmare injuries that can have you laid up for months and months in recovery.

In the rest of this quick guide, we’re going to break down for you almost all of the different kinds of knee pain you may be feeling behind your knee – and, maybe most importantly – what you’re going to be able to do about it.

Shall we dive right in?

Let’s get to it!

Inflammatory pain is a symptom of tearing and interior damage to soft tissue and tendons

If the pain you’re feeling in the back of your knee is a tight, throbbing, almost “undercurrent” kind of knee pain, the odds are pretty solid that you’re fighting off inflammation.

Most of the time, this inflammation is going to be caused by damage to the soft tissue in your knees, with the biggest culprit being one of the hamstring tendons. As your knee bends your tendons are going to flex back and forth, and after years and years of this consistent movement – and all of that friction building up – your tendons are going to become inflamed and damaged along the way.

And when that happens your knee is going to swell, fluid is going to build up, and you’re going to feel more than a little pinch from the inflammation.

These kinds of issues are only further compounded when you talk about exerting yourself with inflammation already happening. Running, kicking, and working out your lower body is all going to have a negative cumulative effect on your knees.

Cysts can build up in your knee and become quite painful as well

Though not quite as common an issue as your tendons becoming inflamed in the back of your knee, it is possible for cysts – like Bakers Cysts, for example – to grow in localized areas behind your kneecap.

You’ll find a golf ball sized lump in the back of your knee that you can actually feel right through the skin, a sure sign of a cystic condition. Most of the time the pain present is going to be rather mild (unless you exert extra energy or work your knees more than you would have otherwise), but at the same time the pressure can build and build – especially as the cyst grows – and it can become an almost unbearable problem.

Tendonitis can be a common back of knee pain cause

Your popliteus tendon is going to be responsible for controlling the way your tibia and shin actually move. The pain here is going to be very localized, and you’re going to feel it most severely when you press upon the back of your knee.

If you’re dealing with even more significant tendonitis, you’ll likely feel some serious pain in your knee when you move it front to back – like when you’re walking around. It can be a real nightmare for you.

Inflammation of Calf Tendons

Inflammation of your calf tendons can creep up into the back of your knee as well. These knee pain issues are some of the most difficult to deal with, mostly because the actual source of the pain isn’t anywhere near where the pain manifests.

In fact, a lot of the time, you’re going to feel next to no real pain in your calf at all (maybe a little bit of tightness). This is why you’ll want to have a specialist look into the issue, especially if the pain becomes unmanageable.

Get to a doctor?

At the end of the day, anything but a slightly irritating and fleeting pain signal in the back of your knee can be a symptom of something much more serious that needs to be addressed in a hurry.

You’ll want to seek out medical assistance ASAP. Contact your primary care physician when you feel the pain becoming more consistent and not nearly as manageable with over the counter solutions. Ask that they perform a number of different tests and scans, and always make sure that they show you any of the damage that may be behind the problems that you’re facing.

They’ll be able to assess the issue right away, tell you exactly what’s causing the underlying pain you’re feeling in the back of your knee, and then prescribe a pain management solution that works wonders to resolve your issues.

Most of the time a little bit of therapy, some prescription pain killers, and some rest and time will be more than enough to get over the pain and restore the damage that may have been done. In rare circumstances you’ll need to move forward with a surgical solution that cleans up the problem from the inside out.

Just make sure you go into that kind of surgery with both eyes open, and that you always follow your post-op recovery procedure.