02/14/2026
🔊 Knee Crepitus – Should We Be Concerned?
👉Many individuals report hearing or feeling a crackling, grinding, or “crunching” sensation in the knee during walking, squatting, or rising from a chair. This phenomenon commonly referred to as crepitus often generates anxiety and assumptions of structural damage.
👉 From a contemporary musculoskeletal perspective, such concern is not always warranted.
📊 What does current evidence suggest?
👉Crepitus is highly prevalent across age groups, including asymptomatic individuals. While it may coexist with structural changes such as cartilage wear or radiographic osteoarthritis, its presence alone does not confirm clinically meaningful pathology.
👉Importantly:
• Structural findings do not consistently correlate with pain or functional limitation.
• Many people with audible knee sounds demonstrate normal strength, mobility, and activity levels.
• Crepitus without pain, swelling, joint locking, or functional decline is frequently a benign finding.
👉In other words, joint noise is not equivalent to joint damage.
💡👀 Clinical interpretation
👉In physiotherapy practice, symptoms not sounds guide clinical reasoning.
👉A knee that produces sound but remains:
• Pain-free
• Non-swollen
• Functionally capable
• Stable during load
does not necessarily require intervention.
👉Conversely, if crepitus is accompanied by persistent pain, progressive stiffness, swelling, mechanical locking, or functional deterioration, further assessment is appropriate to determine contributing factors.
🎯 Take-home message
👉Knee crepitus is common and, in many cases, clinically insignificant.
👉Not every sound signals harm.
👉Understanding this distinction helps reduce unnecessary fear, prevent overmedicalisation, and support confident movement.
👉Listen to the symptoms, not just the sound.
Disclaimer:
👉 Sharing a study is NOT an endorsement.
👉 You should read the original research yourself and be critical.
