Knee Joint Parts and Common Problems

The knee is easiest to follow once you know what it is made of. According to Cleveland Clinic, the knee is the biggest joint in your body. It is where your thigh bone (femur) meets your shin bone (tibia).

For a reader in Hawthorne, those two bones are the starting point. Cleveland Clinic's page on a knee sprain shows how an injury to the joint is described once the parts are clear.

The parts of the knee

Cleveland Clinic adds that your knees also contain cartilage, like your meniscus, and ligaments, including your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) and collateral ligaments. Those parts make a short list to check against:

• Thigh bone (femur)
• Shin bone (tibia)
• Meniscus
• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
• Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)
• Collateral ligaments

The next rung to read

Match what you notice to a part on the list above, then read a general guide to knee pain to see how symptoms are described. Before an appointment, write down where the pain sits, when it started and what you have already tried.

The closing question for this page is simple: can you name the part of the knee that hurts? If you can, you are ready to read about the next step in the sequence.