IT band - SOLVED!!

[Mr.Gib]

I thought I would put up my experience which has been similar, although lucky not as severe.
I started to get sharp pain around the top of my knee cap on the inside of my knee.
I saw a physio immediately. The pain was caused by a very tight IT band which was pulling my knee cap to the outside,

This is Patello-Femoral syndrome or similar. Illeotibial Band Syndrome is pain at the lateral side of the knee where to IT band passes over the lateral epicondyle of the femur. Yes, having tight lateral quads or insufficiently strong vastus medialis can really mess up the tracking of the patella and cause all sorts of knee pain, but it's not IT band syndrome. The good news is that that PFS is easily fixed with good physio.

[superdx]

So it's about 2 weeks later, and swapped out to a band that's even firmer. They're called therabands? They come in a few different colors, blue > black > silver (in order of flexibility, silver being least flexible). I was using blue at first, but it didn't seem to last over a number of hours, or hard efforts.

So trying the black at first application, it feels almost too tight and that it would seriously rub off all the skin around my knee, but miracles of miracles, its more comfortable, there is ZERO ITB pain and it stays on better. It's permanently solved!

I'm sure the ITB is still causing an issue, but at least I can work on my bike fitness and core strength at the same time while it heals up over the next couple months.

Crazy what this little tubing of plastic can do. It's literally the best result possible!

[superdx]

It's been just over half a year that I had this problem so I thought I'd give an update. ITBS has stayed away, and I'm still cycling pain free with the help of the Theraband tubing. On some rides I don't even need it anymore. However it appears I'm still very sensitive for bike fit changes so ran into some issues when I was trying different saddles, I can feel the ITBS having a dull ache but when I get home I just do a couple minutes of stretching, go back to my old saddle + position and then it's gone again. Now I'm trying to get back into shape and lose about 10kg that I gained from doing almost nothing last year!

[mr4fox]

Good to hear it's improved and your enjoying riding again!!

Any chance you could post a few pics of how you attach the Theraband?

[superdx]

Definitely! There's a bit of technique to it so I'll ask my physiotherapist for his permission to do a short YouTube video. It was his idea after all so don't want affect his practice by posting the wrong technique.

[Skipton]

However, if the cause of ITBS really is in the hips/glutes then I don't know what good surgery is going to do. The fact that it migrated from left leg to right leg seems to indicate that the knee is just a symptom. Maybe hip surgery?!

Hip surgery??? Don't even think about it!!

It doesn't matter what the cause is. What matters to you now is the solution. The source of pain is inflammation of the bursa-like tissue under the IT band adjacent to the lateral femoral epicondile. The nerves in this tissue transmit a pain message to the brain that is completely disproportionate to the injury. Remove this tissue and presto the pain is gone and cannot come back.

Even if the hips, glutes, etc. are tight, your symptoms may simply be from how your IT band travels around your knee or the shape of the bones in your legs, or the nature of your bursa-like tissue, or how your nerves work, or how your brain receives pain messages. No doubt there are some who have a flare up of ITBS, do a couple of glute stretches, etc. and never have a problem again. However, the fact that you have been fighting this for months and not got the slightest bit better tells me that you solution is surgical.

In the past surgical techniques consisted mostly of cutting a piece (resection) out of the ITB where it crossed the femoral epicondile. Some surgeons even shaved the epicondile (don't do this). Success rates were decent. More modern technique involved the resection plus removal of the bursa-like tissue underneath (excision). Result were effectively 100%. Recently a surgeon in Belgium did 32 surgeries where only the bursa-like tissue was removed and no resection was conducted. Result were 100%. (This last technique was arthroscopic which meant superfast recovery. All others are open surgery.)

I had the resection and the excision on both knees 5 months apart. Pain for 3 days, limping for week, on the bike in 4-6 weeks. Going 100% in 10-12 weeks. Done.

I have just stumbled upon this thread although it is quite old now. I have been plagued with this injury for 18 months now and simply cannot get over it and have tried everything. Spent months in the gym strengthening things seriously with squats, lunges, dead lifts and other posterior chain exercises and had no pain in the Gym but as soon as I try to Cycle or Jog it just comes back. I wonder if you might share your surgeon so I can contact to discuss this surgery option.