Table 1.

Typical disorders of single joints that should be considered in differential diagnosis.

	Shoulder and acromioclavicular joint	Sternoclavicular joint	Elbow	Wrist and hand	Hip	Sacroiliac joint	Knee	Ankle	Midfoot	Forefoot and toes
Tendinopathies, enthesopathies, impingement and overuse	Degenerative tears and tendinosis of the rotator cuff tendons Cuff arthropathy Bicipital tendinitis Coracoid syndrome Bench-presser’s shoulder		Lateral epicondylitis Medial epicondylitis Tendinosis of the triceps, biceps, brachioradialis tendon	Inflammation of tendons surrounding the wrist (see text) Ganglion cyst Trigger finger Ulnar abutment syndrome Intersection syndrome (oarsman’s wrist or squeaker’ swrist) Hamato-lunate impaction syndrome and dorsal wrist impingement syndromes	Tendinosis and strains of the large tendons that surround the hip joint (see text) Strains of the rectus femoris reflected head Internal snapping hip Core muscle injury External snapping hip		Tendinosis and strains of the large tendons that surround the knee joint (see text) Pellegrini-Stieda syndrome Infrapatellar (Hoffa’s)or prefemoral fat pad impingement	Inflammation and tears of tendons and ligaments surrounding the ankle Peroneal retinaculum injury Peroneus quartus syndrome Os peroneum Previous lateral ankle ligaments or distal syndesmotic injury Impingements of the ankle Os trigonum syndrome Sinus tarsi syndrome Os subfibulare	Tendinitis and tendinosis (see text) Cuboidal fossa syndrome	Tendinitis (see text) Sesamoiditis Metatarsalgia Trigger toe Bunion or bunionette Hammer and claw toes Plantar plate lesions
Bursitis	Bursitis of the shoulder bursae		Olecranon bursitis		Trochanteric bursitis Psoas bursitis Morel-Lavallée lesion		Bursitis of the knee bursae Baker’s cyst	Bursitis of the ankle bursae
Arthrosis	Osteoarthrosis primary or secondary – see text
Labral, meniscal and cartilaginous lesions, previous traumatic injury or surgery	Tears of the labral attachment of the biceps tendon Labral tears Hill-Sachs lesion, Bankart lesion, Humeral avulsion of the glenohumeral ligament Post-capsulorrhaphy arthropathy Old intra-articular fractures	Old intra-articular fractures	Old intra-articularfractures	Tears of the triangular fibrocartilage complex Neglected scaphoid fractures with or without injury to the scapho-lunate ligament Old intra-articular fractures and distal radio-ulnar joint injury Carpal instability	Labral tears Old intra-articular fractures	Old intra-articular fractures	Meniscal tears Discoid meniscus Meniscal cysts Old Anterior cruciate ligament injury Injury to the upper Tibio-Fibular joint Arthrofibrosis of the knee Patellofemoral pain syndrome Osteochondritis dissecans of the knee Old intra-articular fractures	Previous fracture or ligamentous injury Non-union of a previously undetected fracture of the anterior process of the calcaneus	Old intra-articular fractures Previous traumatic injury to the Lisfranc or Shopart joints	Old intra-articular fractures Turf-toe
Osteochondroses, epiphysitis and apophysitis, osteochondritis dissecans	Proximal humeral epiphysiolysis, “little league shoulder”		“Little league elbow” Panner disease Osteochondritis dissecans of the capitellum Injury to the olecranon apophysis	Gymnast’s wrist (distal radial physeal stress syndrome)	Rectus femoris avulsion of the apophysis by the direct head Apophysitis of the lesser trochanter with avulsion Slipped capital epiphysis Osteochondritis dissecans of the hip		Osgood Schlatter Sinding Larsen Johansson	Osteochondral lesions of the talar dome Distal tibial epiphysitis	Kohler’s disease Iselin’s disease
Instability	Instability of the glenohumeral joint or the ACJ “Swimmer’s shoulder”	Post dislocation instability	Post dislocation instability			Sacroiliac joint dysfunction	Patellar instability Post ligamentous injury instability	Ankle instability after ligamentous injury
Nerve entrapment or inflammation	Neuropathic arthropathy (Charcot arthropathy) Entrapment of the suprascapular nerve Quadrilateral space syndrome Parsonage-Turner syndrome Referred pain	Referred pain	Radial tunnel syndrome (posterior interosseous nerve entrapment) Referred pain	Referred pain	Referred pain	Referred pain	Complex regional pain syndrome of the knee Neuropathic arthropathy Referred pain	Injury or neuroma of the sural nerve Deep peroneal neuropathy Superficial peroneal neuropathy Charcot arthropathy Referred pain	Charcot arthropathy Referred pain	Morton’sneuroma Referred pain
Inflammatory disorders (hydroxyapatite deposition disease, calcium pyrophosphate deposition, gout etc.)	Calcific tendinitis (Hydroxyapatite deposition disease) Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis) Milwaukee shoulder	SAPHO syndrome Tietze’s syndrome Condensing osteitis		Pseudogout CPPD	HADD Familial Mediterranean fever Transient synovitis		Pseudogout Acute gout Familial Mediterranean fever Intermittent hydrarthrosis Lipoma arborescens	Acute gout FMF	Acute gout	Acute gout
Septic arthritis and periarticular osteomyelitis	Septic arthritis is possible at any joint Tuberculosis Epiphyseal subacute osteomyelitis (Brodie’s abscess)
Tumours and cysts, synovial proliferation	Benign and malignant tumours, tumour like conditions Metastases Synovial chondromatosis Pigmented villonodular synovitis Ganglion cysts and intraosseous ganglion
Stress fractures	Possible at any location after drastic increase in activity or repeated excessive activity
Pathological fractures	Pathological fractures on an existing asymptomatic bone cyst or other bone weakening process
Avascular necrosis and Transient osteoporosis	Avascular necrosis of the proximal humerus	Friedrich’s disease (spontaneous necrosis of the medial end of the clavicle)	Osteonecrosis of the elbow	Kienböck’s disease Avascular necrosis of other carpal bones Mauclaire or Dietrich disease Thiemann disease	Avascular necrosis of the hip Transient osteoporosis Perthes disease	Osteonecrosis of the sacroiliac joint	Osteonecrosis of the knee	Osteonecrosis of the talus and rarely other bones	Müller-Weiss disease	Freiberg’s infraction Thiemann disease
Congenital and developmental deformities and dislocations, plicae	Os acromiale Synovial subacromial plica		Congenital dislocation of the radial head Plica in the radio-capitellar joint	Madelung deformity Negative and positive ulnar variances	FAI Synovial plica of the hip Developmental dysplasia of the hip	Bertolotti’s syndrome (lumbosacral transitional vertebra)	Synovial plica of the knee	Tarsal coalitions	Accessory navicular bone
Bleeding (hemarthrosis)	Possible in any joint in a patient with bleeding diathesis (hemophilia, anticoagulant treatment etc.)
Hyperpara thyroidism	Brown tumour can develop at any joint
Pregnancy	Especially affects pelvic joints
Systemic disease	See text

Abbreviations:HADD: Hydroxyapatite deposition disease; FMF: Familial Mediterranean fever; CPPD: Calcium pyrophosphate deposition; FAI: Femoroace-tabular impingement; SAPHO: Synovitis-acne-pustulosis-hyperostosis-osteitis syndrome.