Chronic Knee Pain Linked to Pain in Other Joints

Individuals with chronic knee pain are at a greater risk of developing pain in other joints, with gait adjustment as a possible explanation, according to the results of a recent study.

Despite joint pain outside of the knee being a common occurrence in individuals with chronic knee pain, the distributions and causes of this pain are not well understood.
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In order to further explore this association, the researchers examined data from 2 large cohort studies of patients with or at risk of knee pain and osteoarthritis, including patients ranging from 45 to 79 years old.

Patients with knee pain at baseline were excluded, and those who developed knee pain were compared with those who did not. Incident pain was defined as pain present during any of the 2 studies’ follow-up visits. Fourteen joints were examined overall, including ankles, hips, hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

There were 693 individuals with knee pain and 2793 without. Overall, 79.6% of those with bilateral and 63.8% of those with unilateral knee pain had pain in another joint vs 49.9% of those without knee pain. Results remained the same even after excluding patients with widespread pain.

“Persons with chronic knee pain are at increased risk of pain in multiple joints in no specific pattern,” they concluded, offering modifications in the gait of osteoarthritis patients causing gradual damage to other joints as a possible explanation for their results.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Felson DT, Niu J, Quinn EK, et al. Multiple nonspecific sites of joint pain outside the knees develop in persons with knee pain [published online September 2, 2016]. Arthritis & Rheumatology. doi:10.1002/art.39848