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Joint locking or catching
Joint locking is a clinical finding in which a joint feels locked in place, often painfully so. This can occur due to diseases of the cartilage of the joint.
Dr. Keegan Duchicela reviewed this
16 year experience in family medicine
How long it usually lasts:
Body locations
Is Symptom of
Related questions
A 43-year old asked:
Hello doctors, what does it mean when your joints lock up?
1 doctor answer • 2 doctors weighed in
A 73-year old male asked:
My finger joints lock ?
3 doctor answers • 12 doctors weighed in
A 56-year old male asked:
I have constant pain in the joints of my fingers. In the morning, when it's cold, all of them tend to lock in the closed position. ?
1 doctor answer • 4 doctors weighed in
A 29-year old asked:
Knee joints always feel like they lock up and click. ?
2 doctor answers • 6 doctors weighed in
A 38-year old asked:
Why does my knee joint sometimes lock up (doesn't move smoothly)?
1 doctor answer • 5 doctors weighed in
A 35-year old asked:
Please advise what is causing my thumb joint to snap and sometimes lock in position?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 32-year old asked:
I can't bend my fingers normally because the joints closest to my fingertips lock up. Why is this?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 21-year old female asked:
My fingers lock up if I bend them after being straight(bend at the top joint, middle joint locks, seems to distend). What is it? How do I treat it?
2 doctor answers • 7 doctors weighed in
A 40-year old asked:
My muscles and joints lock up occasionally. What kind of doctor do I see?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 34-year old asked about a 24-year old female:
Can Meth cause your joints, especially your hands to lock up? If so, why? And what can be done about it? Other than presumably discontinuing meth?
2 doctor answers • 2 doctors weighed in
A 44-year old female asked:
What are the side effects of having a orthovisc injection? Does osetoarthritis cause the knee joint to lock and clunk? I am at a loss of what do next
1 doctor answer • 2 doctors weighed in
A 44-year old female asked:
Can a displace mensical root cause locking of the knee joint? What causes a knee joint to lock up? Unable to straighten the leg without extreme pain.
1 doctor answer • 8 doctors weighed in
A 21-year old male asked:
I'm having swelling in left knee and a little pain.. Maybe there was a knee joint's lock few days before. Any prescription please?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 25-year old male asked:
One side of upmost finger joint slightly swollen and bruise-like, both gone down over the last few days. Can move and bend finger just fine, pain only when pressing it. Possibly from using it on something that needed pressure to lock multiple times?
1 doctor answer • 2 doctors weighed in
A 38-year old female asked:
2 years ago i had an RF factor of 51 and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. 4 months ago my RF was 69 and have severe joint pain in fingers and toes to the point where I can't even go to work or open a bottle and sometimes my fingers will lock in place.
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 43-year old female asked:
What causes a knee joint to lock up? Is a displacement ot the mensicus root considered a tear? What is medium size joint effusion mean?
3 doctor answers • 3 doctors weighed in
A 33-year old female asked:
Spontaneous Severe Stiff muscle/joint all over body in morning. Hard to climb knees lock. Tests done RA ruled out. Fingers swollen. ?
1 doctor answer • 5 doctors weighed in
A 18-year old asked:
My joints lock up quite often in my elbows, knees, hips, wrist, and ankles, my doctors have seen nothing wrong with me, what shoild I do?
2 doctor answers • 6 doctors weighed in
A 32-year old asked:
Trigeminal neuralgia or temporomandibular joint disorder (lock jaw), what to do?
3 doctor answers • 3 doctors weighed in
A 36-year old asked:
I have jaw and ear pain and I feel my jaw joint catching?
2 doctor answers • 7 doctors weighed in
A 28-year old male asked:
Why am I having major popping and large cracking throughout my T2-L1 spinal fusion? It feels different then soft tissue catching on the screws like more in the vertebrae joints in my 11 spine levels that I had surgery on. Is this failed fusion?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A male asked:
Middle finger has purple bruise in middle where the joint is and pains when is bent. been 2 days. hit by cricket ball while catching?
1 doctor answer • 3 doctors weighed in
A 26-year old female asked:
Im 26, my mother born w/ severe bilateral hip dysplasia corrected by surgery. Lifelong hip "catching" and clicking in joint, and pain. Poss dysplasia?
2 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in
A 33-year old asked:
Can a MRI show a bakers cyst? I have a lot of painful grinding in the knee with catching at the medial knee joint line. Could that be a meniscus tear?
1 doctor answer • 3 doctors weighed in
A 32-year old male asked:
What is the definition or description of: Joint locking?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 33-year old female asked:
My body and joints have been locking up since birth of my 1st child this year end of September?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 45-year old asked:
How do you treat locked joints?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 28-year old female asked:
What would cause hip problems locking/pain at young age? Under 30 hip locks painful and feels like popping out of joint?
2 doctor answers • 8 doctors weighed in
A 43-year old female asked:
Both of my thumbs are locking at the joint .very painful . The right started first now the left is locking.. what could it be ?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
A 25-year old male asked:
In the morning, both ip thumb joints are locked up but release after popping. It is not painful but its new. As a 25 yr old artist, is this a concern?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
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