What’s the Relationship Between Knee Pain and Cartilage Damage?

Ah, what an interesting question. Early on, I tended to think that, where there was chronic knee pain, you’d find damaged cartilage in the joint.

Of course, not in all cases. But in very many.

However, after I learned more (and heard more personal stories from all of you), I modified that belief. People who have knee cartilage that appears perfectly fine get terrible knee pain sometimes. And people with potholed cartilage can have pain-free knees.

But – here’s the but – I definitely think there’s a high correlation between knee pain and bad cartilage. One does not necessarily imply the other. But there is a good likelihood that if you have persistent knee pain of difficult-to-determine origin, you have issues with the cartilage in the joint, or vice versa.

In fact a recent study, looking at 565 people who had a knee arthroscopy, supports this:

Published results showed a strong association between patient-reported knee symptoms and the burden and severity of underlying cartilage damage rather than with specific meniscal pathology ... researchers intraoperatively confirmed and classified the diagnosis of meniscal pathology and concomitant cartilage damage.

The researchers found that “the mean average symptom score increased with the severity of cartilage damage.” Also, there was a relationship between the number of compartments where damage was found and the intensity of symptoms reported.

When there was damage in three knee compartments, there was more frequent catching and locking of the joint, as well as grinding and clicking symptoms. Women and heavier people (a BMI of more than 25) were more likely to have more widespread cartilage damage.

The good news is that cartilage doesn’t have to be restored to a pristine state to get rid of bad knee pain, I believe. So, in the end, “damaged cartilage” shouldn’t mean you’re stuck with those bad knees forever!