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Does the IT Band Move After All?

An ultrasound study says it does indeed slide across the lateral epicondyle, debunking my debunkery and prolonging the controversy

Paul Ingraham • 9m read

Oops! I thought the science of this big tendon and its movements was settled.

I had high confidence that the IT band does not move back-and-forth across the side of the knee (causing IT Band syndrome). My confidence was based on compelling evidence that it can’t move like that — an anatomical impossibility, or near enough. And so debunking “friction” in runner’s knee became one of the mythbusting pillars of my extensive writing on that topic, especially issues like whether or not the IT band can be stretched, or if it’s tendinitis or not.1

It all seemed so clear! I really never expected any controversy on this topic.

And yet there is. Science seems determined to be perpetually unfinished.

The background: the case against IT band movement and friction

Portrait, attributed to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, of Galileo Galilei gazing at the wall of his prison cell, on which are scratched the words "E pur si muove" (not legible in the original image).

Iliotibial band syndrome is a stubborn kind of tendinitis2 in runners, affecting the enormous iliotibial tract or IT band that runs down the thigh and over the side of the knee. For decades, everyone mostly assumed that the IT band was irritated by rubbing back and forth over a bump of bone on the side of the knee, the lateral epicondyle, and so it was often called a friction syndrome.

That old version of the IT band story was challenged about a decade ago by Fairclough et al,34 a dissection study showing that the IT band is actually firmly anchored to the bone it is supposedly rubbing over. Rather than rubbing, it seemed more likely that the IT band was simply compressing the tissue underneath it over and over again, and any appearance of movement was an illusion created by a “wave” of tautness moving through the fibres. This seemed like a decisive change in how IT band should be described: for most people paying attention to it, myself included, Fairclough’s paper more or less put the idea of “friction” in ITBS out to pasture. Friction became a myth to be busted, and I busted it.

But a 2013 ultrasound study by Jelsing et al has set the pendulum back in motion again, back towards friction.5 The science of this is no longer settled.

The challenge: the case for movement back-and-forth is back

Fairclough et al. basically made an assumption that the IT band cannot move back-and-forth, based on the anatomy — a reasonable assumption, perhaps, but an assumption nevertheless.6 Jelsing et al. decided to actually properly check what happens in living subjects using ultrasound. Why not?

“In our opinion,” they write, “the well-documented fascial attachments of the ITB to the lateral femur may limit anteroposterior ITB motion but do not preclude such motion.”

And, of course — because science is just like this — they found that the IT band does move.

The distance from the anterior fibers of the ITB to the apex of the lateral femoral epicondyle decreased from the fully extended to 30° and the fully extended to 45° positions. … We have clearly documented that the ITB does in fact move anteroposteriorly relative to the lateral femoral epicondyle within the functional ranges of knee flexion-extension.

Fascinating. How inconvenient for me! So much for all my tidy, confident debunking of the friction myth.

Jesling et al.: the results and possible problem

The study was straightforward: they used ultrasound to carefully examine 40 knees in 20 healthy recreational runners (five men and 15 women). They measured the distance between the forward edge of the IT band and the lateral femoral epicondyle, through the first 45˚of knee flexion, and found that it moved backwards .71cm on average.7

This evidence is inherently simple and compelling. I’ve read the entire paper carefully, twice now, and it’s hard to find much fault with it. It’s well-written and covers all the bases. The authors candidly acknowledge a few notable weaknesses, but none are obvious deal-breakers.8 The biggest is that “we did not specifically determine the reliability of our measurements or their accuracy relative to a reference standard.” Which is related to my own main concern …

The results depend completely on the expert observations of a single ultrasound expert, who might have been gunning for Fairclough and found what he wanted to find (evidence that Fairclough was wrong). Like all imaging technology, ultrasound really does require expertise to correctly interpret. The images are cryptic to non-experts. But experts can have selective perception too, and the history of science is chock-a-block with good examples of that.

Highlighting the general problem with interpreting ultrasound images: they knew they really need to look at the back edge of the band (more on this below), and yet it was so difficult to actually see that they were only able to measure it in 4 of 20 patients.9

And yet I doubt that’s actually what happened here. The tone of the whole paper is quite reasonable, fairly represents all key relevant points, and strikes me as an earnest attempt to discover the truth and not just to prove someone else wrong. The results certainly need to be replicated, but I wouldn’t waste my money betting against it. I suspect another examiner will find the same thing.

Could the movement still be an illusion?

The authors themselves thoroughly covered one of my own chief concerns: the possibility that it only looks like the IT band is moving, much as Fairclough et al. originally suggested.

Although these data clearly showed that the anterior ITB moved relative to the LFE, we did consider the possibility that this motion may not represent translation [sliding across the LFE]. It would be possible for the anterior fibers of the ITB to move closer to the LFE as a function of ITB tightening due to increased tension.

This is why they tried to look at the back edge of the band as well as the front. Was the whole thing moving, both edges together? The edge was so hard to see in most people they could only get data on it from four subjects … but in those four, the back edge did move in tandem with the forward edge. And so:

Given that both the anterior and posterior fibers of the ITB moved posteriorly during knee flexion, it is reasonable to conclude that the ITB does translate to some extent over the LFE during knee flexion.

However, just because it moves does not mean there’s friction or that the movement is clinically significant. And may still not be “sliding” at all, but moving more like the swaying of seaweed anchored to rocks in shallow water. That is, it’s not “rubbing” back and forth so much as flexing to and fro — mostly eliminating the possibility of any significant friction. If the Jelsing and Fairclough studies can be reconciled, that’s probably how.

Adding more to the credibility of this paper, the authors graciously point out that “our findings are not necessarily wholly contradictory to those published by Fairclough and colleagues,” because the anchoring of the IT band to the underlying bone may indeed limit any rubbing motion, but without completely eliminating it.

Maybe that anchor is more secure in some people than others. Maybe that’s why some people get IT band syndrome — because they have looser IT bands at that location, and there’s more friction. Anatomical variation is the norm!

Back to the IT band drawing board

Obviously I am now going to have to reconsider and revise everything I’ve written about “friction” in IT band syndrome being a myth. However, I’m not going to quite rush out and reverse my position. The impact of this study is that the whole topic is now unsettled science, rather than settled in a new place. I was confident in what I thought I knew. Now I just don’t know again, and that’s how I’ll handle it for now. I can live with the uncertainty. I don’t have much choice, obviously.

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About Paul Ingraham

Headshot of Paul Ingraham, short hair, neat beard, suit jacket.

I am a science writer in Vancouver, Canada. I was a Registered Massage Therapist for a decade and the assistant editor of ScienceBasedMedicine.org for several years. I’ve had many injuries as a runner and ultimate player, and I’ve been a chronic pain patient myself since 2015. Full bio. See you on Facebook or Twitter., or subscribe:

Related Reading

What’s new in this article?

2016 — Added brief explanation of how Jesling might be reconciled with Fairclough: “just because it moves does not mean there’s friction … .” Also, this content has now been integrated into The Complete Guide to IT Band Syndrome.

Notes

  1. “Tendinitis” versus “tendonitis”: Both spellings are acceptable these days, but the first is the more legitimate, while the second is just an old misspelling that has become acceptable only through popular use, which is a thing that happens in English. The word is based on the Latin “tendo” which has a genitive singular form of tendinis, and a combining form that is therefore tendin. (Source: Stedmans Electronic Medical Dictionary.)

    “Tendinitis” vs “tendinopathy: Both are acceptable labels for ticked off tendons. Tendinopathy (and tendinosis) are often used to avoid the implication of inflammation that is baked into the term tendinitis, because the condition involves no signs of gross, acute inflammation. However, recent research has shown that inflammation is actually there, it’s just not obvious. So tendinitis remains a fair label, and much more familiar to patients to boot.

  2. “Tendinitis” versus “tendonitis”: Both spellings are acceptable these days, but the first is the more legitimate, while the second is just an old misspelling that has become acceptable only through popular use, which is a thing that happens in English. The word is based on the Latin “tendo” which has a genitive singular form of tendinis, and a combining form that is therefore tendin. (Source: Stedmans Electronic Medical Dictionary.)

    “Tendinitis” vs “tendinopathy: Both are acceptable labels for ticked off tendons. Tendinopathy (and tendinosis) are often used to avoid the implication of inflammation that is baked into the term tendinitis, because the condition involves no signs of gross, acute inflammation. However, recent research has shown that inflammation is actually there, it’s just not obvious. So tendinitis remains a fair label, and much more familiar to patients to boot.

  3. Fairclough J, Hayashi K, Toumi H, et al. The functional anatomy of the iliotibial band during flexion and extension of the knee: implications for understanding iliotibial band syndrome. J Anat. 2006 Mar;208(3):309–316. PubMed 16533314 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 56738 ❐

    ABSTRACT


    Iliotibial band (ITB) syndrome is a common overuse injury in runners and cyclists. It is regarded as a friction syndrome where the ITB rubs against (and 'rolls over') the lateral femoral epicondyle. Here, we re-evaluate the clinical anatomy of the region to challenge the view that the ITB moves antero-posteriorly over the epicondyle. Gross anatomical and microscopical studies were conducted on the distal portion of the ITB in 15 cadavers. This was complemented by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of six asymptomatic volunteers and studies of two athletes with acute ITB syndrome. In all cadavers, the ITB was anchored to the distal femur by fibrous strands, associated with a layer of richly innervated and vascularized fat. In no cadaver, volunteer or patient was a bursa seen. The MR scans showed that the ITB was compressed against the epicondyle at 30 degrees of knee flexion as a consequence of tibial internal rotation, but moved laterally in extension. MR signal changes in the patients with ITB syndrome were present in the region occupied by fat, deep to the ITB. The ITB is prevented from rolling over the epicondyle by its femoral anchorage and because it is a part of the fascia lata. We suggest that it creates the illusion of movement, because of changing tension in its anterior and posterior fibres during knee flexion. Thus, on anatomical grounds, ITB overuse injuries may be more likely to be associated with fat compression beneath the tract, rather than with repetitive friction as the knee flexes and extends.

  4. Fairclough J, Hayashi K, Toumi H, et al. Is iliotibial band syndrome really a friction syndrome? Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport. 2007 Apr;10(2):74–76. PubMed 16996312 ❐
  5. Jelsing EJ, Finnoff JT, Cheville AL, Levy BA, Smith J. Sonographic evaluation of the iliotibial band at the lateral femoral epicondyle: does the iliotibial band move? J Ultrasound Med. 2013 Jul;32(7):1199–206. PubMed 23804342 ❐ PainSci Bibliography 53484 ❐

    ABSTRACT


    OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the iliotibial band (ITB) moves relative to the lateral femoral epicondyle (LFE) as a function of knee flexion in both non-weight-bearing and weight-bearing positions in asymptomatic recreational runners.

    METHODS: Five male and 15 female asymptomatic recreational runners (10-30 miles/wk) aged 18 to 40 years were examined with sonography to assess the distance between the anterior fibers of the ITB and the LFE in full extension, 30° of knee flexion, and 45° of knee flexion. Measurements were obtained on both knees in the supine (non-weight-bearing) and standing (weight-bearing) positions.

    RESULTS: The distance between the anterior fibers of the ITB and the LFE decreased significantly from full extension to 45° of knee flexion in both supine (0.38-cm average decrease; P < .001) and standing (0.71-cm average decrease; P < .001) positions. These changes reflect posterior translation of the ITB during the 0° to 45° flexion arc of motion in both the supine and standing positions.

    CONCLUSIONS: Sonographic evaluation of the ITB in our study population clearly revealed anteroposterior motion of the ITB relative to the LFE during knee flexion-extension. Our results indicate that the ITB does in fact move relative to the femur during the functional ranges of knee motion. Future investigations examining ITB motion in symptomatic populations may provide further insight into the pathophysiologic mechanisms of ITB syndrome and facilitate the development of more effective treatment strategies.

  6. They did “check,” but it was only a cursory check. According to Jelsing et al., they mostly confirmed a lack of translational movement just by “visually inspecting a highly defined athlete’s knee.”
  7. In standing subjects. It was quite a bit less when they were lying down, but that probably isn’t as relevant to iliotibial band syndrome. Although .7cm may not seem like much movement, it’s probably enough for the idea of an IT band that rubs on the side of the knee. However, that still doesn’t mean that friction is actually occurring — more on this below.
  8. Maybe not enough knees, mostly all from the same kinds of patients; they didn’t measure in a single-leg standing (which would simulate the stance phase of running better); they didn’t control for the positions of other joints.
  9. “Additional participants were not examined because of the difficulty in identifying the actual posterior margin of the ITB and differentiating it from the fascia with which it blends.”

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