Overuse conditions are often related to sport or occupations, where repetitive motions and heavy loads may lead to painful tendon inflammation or even rupture. Fluid may also collect in tissue pockets called 'bursae', and cause localised painful swellings.
Overuse injuries are a common cause of morbidity in athletes. They occur after repetitive microtrauma, abnormal joint alignment, and poor training technique without appropriate time to heal."
What triggers overuse injuries?
Overuse injuries are not like sudden sprains - they are insidious.
The patient may be doing an activity that the knee normally tolerates well, but by just doing it a bit too often or not spacing the activity out well the body reacts by triggering an inflammatory process. This might be a sudden local collection of fluid in a mobile tissue envelope called a bursa. Or it might be an inflammation and fluid accumulation within a tendon sheath, or a degeneration of the substance of a tendon.
Other relevant links on KNEEguru
A-Z Keywords -
- Runner's knee, Jumper's knee, Iliotibial band syndrome, Bursitis, Tendinitis, Tendonitis, Carpet fitter's knee, Iliotibial band friction syndrome, Patellar tendinopathy, Quadriceps tendinopathy, Clergyman's knee, Osgood Schlatter's disease, Housemaid's knee