click and drag the bone name to its location in the picture

When this is the cause, you’ll also have pain in your lower back or the back and outside of your thigh. The other common cause of these symptoms is a pinched nerve in your lumbar spine. Your symptoms may be intermittent or continuous depending on what’s pushing on the nerve. If you’ve had a pinched nerve for two or more weeks, the muscles supplied by the nerve can begin to waste away. Other symptoms of a pinched peroneal nerve are felt on the outside of your lower leg and on the top of your foot. Your ability to turn your foot outward and extend your big toe are also affected. This causes your foot to drag when you walk. Weakness that limits your ability to lift your foot toward your leg, known as dorsiflexion, is often considered the most bothersome symptom. When the nerve itself is also damaged, the symptoms are the same but more severe. Usually only the lining, or myelin, around the nerve is injured. When it’s compressed, it becomes inflamed, which causes the symptoms of a pinched nerve. The peroneal nerve supplies both sensation and movement to the outside of your lower leg and the top of your foot. What are the signs and symptoms of a pinched nerve in the knee? Rarely, the nerve is inadvertently pinched during knee replacement surgery or an arthroscopic procedure.

These can cause pressure when they’re located in or around the nerve. Designed to maintain pressure on your legs, these stockings can compress the nerve. Your legs tend to rotate outward and your knees flex while lying down, and the bed can put pressure on the nerve in this position. The equipment used to keep your legs rotated outward and knees flexed for most gynecologic and some abdominal surgeries can compress the nerve. When the top of a boot lands right below the knee, a pinched nerve can develop. A tight or rigid brace can compress the nerve. The top of the cast can press on the nerve. The nerve can be pinched due to bleeding or inflammation when your ligament is injured. A fracture of the larger lower leg bone ( tibia) or occasionally the smaller bone ( fibula) near your knee can entrap the nerve. This position put pressure on the side of your knee. Compression by the opposite knee while you cross your legs is the most common cause. Traumatic injuries can lead to pressure on the nerve from inside your knee.Ĭommon causes of a pinched nerve in your knee include: This nerve goes around the outside of your knee before traveling down the outside of your lower leg.Īt the bottom of your knee, it lies between the bone and skin, which makes it vulnerable to compression by anything that puts pressure on the outside of your knee. It’s a branch of your sciatic nerve called the peroneal nerve. There’s only one nerve going through your knee that’s at risk of being compressed. What can cause a pinched nerve in the knee?

Click and drag the bone name to its location in the picture