Is the backside of a knee bulging with fluid? Or do you have pain in the back of a knee? Or is swelling behind your knee causing stiffness? Any one of these symptoms may indicate you have a Baker’s cyst, aka popliteal cyst.
A Baker’s cyst contains synovial fluid that has overflowed out of your knee joint. Typically, a popliteal cyst is caused by the flare up of some sort of inflammatory knee condition, like osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, or knee damage involving a meniscal cartilage tear.
Oftentimes, a Baker’s cyst only causes swelling symptoms without pain. However, a large cyst or certain types of activity can cause back of knee pain and stiffness to be noticed. And in the rare event your popliteal cyst ruptures, you may experience sharp pain, a water running down calf feeling and back of the knee and calf bruising or redness.
Because the back of knee pain or swelling behind knee symptoms can be caused by a condition other than a Baker’s cyst, such as a blood clot, tumor or aneurysm, you should always have this knee problem evaluated by a health care provider.
Typically, popliteal cyst treatment involves treating the underlying cause, for instance a cortisone injection to reduce inflammation or cartilage removal surgery, then the cyst resolves itself over time. For large, painful cysts, the fluid creating your Baker’s cyst might be drained.
Treatment measures you can do on your own to help relieve your pain and swelling behind the knee are:
- avoid activity that causes pain
- R.I.C.E. ~ rest, ice, compression, elevation
- take pain relievers, NSAIDs ~ acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen
Sometimes a cyst does not go away on its own, then the ultimate form of treatment is removing it via arthroscopic surgery.