Knee: flexed knee

Flexed knee is a condition in which the knee joint does not fully extend when standing or lying down.

It can be due to multiple causes and requires experienced centers to distinguish between the different forms and to choose the appropriate treatment.

Flexed knee: causes

The causes of a flexed knee can be multiple and depending on the causes we can distinguish:

• Congenital forms : the knee lacks full extension from birth. For example, in arthrogryposis, pterygium, etc.
• Developmental forms : during growth, the lack of complete extension is noted. For example, in some forms of discoid meniscus
• acquired forms : following trauma or infection
• Neurogenic forms : due to retraction of the posterior chain muscles, the knee is incompletely extended. This is what happens, for example, in children with cerebral palsy. In this case, the situation is actually much more complex; if both knees are flexed during walking, the gait is called crouch gait (see dedicated fact sheet).

Flexed knee: treatment

Treatment of a flexed knee varies depending on the cause, the severity of the condition, the patient’s age, and the structure causing the bent knee.

• From orthotic treatments to rehabilitative treatments to surgical interventions.

Flexed knee: what interventions are available?

Surgical interventions vary depending on the cause, the structure involved, the patient’s age, etc. Possible procedures include:

• arthroscopies
• tendon lengthening
• posterior capsulotomies
• osteotomies
• progressive corrections with external fixator

OrthoChildren Center performs all these procedures