1 Before you use it
What it is
One of the oldest knee scores still in use. Eight items — limp, support, locking, instability, pain, swelling, stair climbing, squatting — weighted, with instability and pain carrying the most.
When to reach for it
Meniscal and ligament presentations, and when comparing against historical data or a study that used it.
For new baselines, IKDC or KOOS are the better choices.
Patterns it serves · 3
2 Giving it
Scoring
Weighted items totalling 0–100. Higher is better.
The weighting is the thing to know: instability and pain dominate, so two patients with the same total can be very different.
What it doesn’t measure
Sport-specific demand, activity level, or psychological readiness.
3 Reading the score
Interpreting it
Interpret against baseline.
It appears constantly in older literature, which is the main reason a student needs to recognise it.
Is the change real?
Student trap. Treating it as an unweighted score. Instability and pain carry most of the 100 points.
This is a learning tool. It does not diagnose patients and does not replace your clinical educator.
Did this page do its job?
CliniStudy is in beta. One tap is enough — it decides what gets fixed first.