pes anserine bursitis

Anyone else been diagnosed with this as the sole cause of medial knee pain?

Seems to me that it's part of a larger problem, and usually associated with another injury (like my torn mensicus a year ago).

How have people dealt with the pain associated with it? Orthotics? Cortisone shots? It hurts a lot at night, and gets aggravated when I work out. The swelling is only local and not in the joint so thats why they think it's not a meniscus tear.


All in all, it looks like a better diagnosis that it could have been, I guess. Pain is pain, but is it indicative of a major alignment issue?

-Nikki

in my experience it usually does not indicate a larger problem. Usually this is associated with tightness of the pes anserine tendons. The pes anserine is a common tendon for the gracillis, semitendinosis and sartorius muscles.

In short try stretching the groin, adductors and hamstrings. If you try standing with your feet wider than shoulder width apart and then lean away from the affected leg, this should stretch the pes anserine area. you might have to play around with foot position to make it strecth in the right place.

heat before stretching, ice after workouts and more stretching.

Also try going to rehab for some ultrasound or ionto.

The only other thing in that area is the infrapatellar nerve. Irritation here can mimic pes anserine bursitis.. Try pinching the skin directly over your painful area. if this replicates your pain the nerve may be irritated.

Irritation here can mimic pes anserine bursitis.

Hi! I've been seeing a PT for three weeks to deal with what she diagnosed as pes anserine bursitis in me. I ran a half marathon without training for it, and about mile 8 the bottom/front of my knee started hurting. It kept hurting for a few weeks after the race ended, even though I didn't run on it, so I went in to get it looked at.

She says it's not symptomatic of a bigger problem in me, except that I started running with poor form when I got tired, and turned my leg out a bit because my quads and gluts weren't conditioned for the race. So my pes anserine bursa took the hit for me.

She gave me a theraband and some quad / glut / hip adductor exercises to do. And balancing on one leg (holding my foot behind me, bent at the knee) is supposed to be a really good exercise for me (if it gets too easy, close your eyes). I'm supposed to be working up to a one legged squat (with my other leg extended in front of me). The knee hurts less when I lean forward at the hips when I bend it (which has to do with my balance and where my weight is?), which is how I do these one-legged squats (and wall sits, and other quad exercises). It's been almost a month and a week since I hurt it and it's better than it was...but still not ready for ski season :( . She gave me an 8-week recovery timeline. I spend about 30 min a day on these therapy exercises.

Good luck!!
Hillary

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Originally Posted by nikster140

Anyone else been diagnosed with this as the sole cause of medial knee pain?

Seems to me that it's part of a larger problem, and usually associated with another injury (like my torn mensicus a year ago).

How have people dealt with the pain associated with it? Orthotics? Cortisone shots? It hurts a lot at night, and gets aggravated when I work out. The swelling is only local and not in the joint so thats why they think it's not a meniscus tear.


All in all, it looks like a better diagnosis that it could have been, I guess. Pain is pain, but is it indicative of a major alignment issue?

-Nikki

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