Knee joint arthrosis: Causes, symptoms and treatment

A healthy person perceives the ability to walk and run as something natural and simple.But those who have encountered diseases of the skeletal muscle system know how difficult the temporary or continuous restriction of mobility carries.Meanwhile, every second person over 50 is suffering from joint inflammation, and knee joint arthritis is one of the main causes of disability in women and men.

Causes of knee joint arthrosis

Despite the widespread spread of arthrosis, there is still confusion with the name of the disease.Officially it is called "deformation of osteoarthritis".But even from the doctors' lips, you can hear the word "arthritis" - there is no significant mistake here, though most often this term is used in relation to rheumatoid arthritis: another disease that has a different origin and symptoms than osteoarthritis.

Deformation of osteoarthritis is a progressive cartilage lesion that lines the surface of the knot, which leads to a violation of its work and pain.

This is an extremely common pathology, which is more common in women of advanced age suffering from overweight.However, sometimes the deformation of osteoarthritis is also observed in young sports men: the impulse for the development of the disease is the sports trauma caused by excess loads in the gym.

Moreover, gonarthrosis occurs for the following reasons:

• foot fractures and knee joint displacements;
• Meniscus injections;
• Common inflammatory diseases (rheumatism, gout, bakhterev's disease, etc.);
• metabolic violations;
• Congenital weakness of the ligamentous apparatus (hypermobility of the joints);
• Hereditary predisposition to the arthrosis of the knee joint.

Honartrosis can develop in each of us - experts note that this is a consequence (paradoxically) an increase in average population life expectancy: our joints fail before we feel old and refuse activity.

The symptoms of arthrosis of the knee joint

Arthrosis never happens suddenly.The first symptom that occurs long before the akeleum of the disease is a slight knee pain when walking, intensifying during elevation and descending to the stairs.Unpleasant sensations, as a rule, appear at the beginning of the movement, disappear after a short walk and after a long load on the joint, they return again.

Over time, if arthritis is not treated, the symptoms deteriorate - the pain becomes persistent, the movements in the knee joint are increasingly limited, and the knee increases in size.Doctors advise not to have a hospital visit already when the first unpleasant sensations appear.This will do without prolonged and expensive treatment: with the development of the disease, its getting rid of it is becoming increasingly difficult.

Gonetrosis

There are three degrees of knee joint arthrosis:

• 1 degree of gonarthrosis is a gap from the first symptoms of the disease to the occurrence of bone deformities, which are visible during examination or in X -rays.In this case, the knee can change its shape in the first months of arthrosis, but due to the accumulation of fluid in the joint (this phenomenon is called synovitis).1 gonarthrosis degree is mainly characterized by the pain of different intensity that occurs during movement.
• 2 The degree of arthrosis of the knee joint is associated with unpleasant sensations in the smallest load, a knee cramp when walking and clarifying a decrease in joint mobility.On X -Ray, the growth of bone tissue along the edges of the joint and the narrowing of the joint gap is visible.From the outside, the knee with 2 degrees gonarthrosis also looks deformed and increased in size.
• With 3 degrees of gonarthrosis of cartilage tissue, it is almost not remained within the joint, and in the severe form of osteoarthrosis, the bones grow together, which leads to complete immobility of the diseased foot.It is difficult for a person with such a disease to take a position in which the pain calms down - a dream worries, and it becomes impossible to move without a cruttle or stick.

Only a doctor is capable of establishing the degree of arthrosis of the knee joint after the study of radiography: there are times when mild characteristic symptoms of the first degree are accompanied by the destruction of intra -articular cartilage.

The treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint

If the diagnosis has detected gonartrosis, it is necessary to address the future treatment responsibly.Do not expect that compresses or ointments from the nearest pharmacy will solve the problem - this disease requires an integrated approach and compliance with a specialist's recommendations.

There is and should not have a single "scenario" of the treatment of knee joint arthrosis - the orthopedist is obliged to take into account the patient's complaints, pay attention to the simultaneous pathology and take into account the arsenal of physiotherapeutic techniques available in the medical institution.The best option is to treat gonartrosis at a specialized orthopedic clinic.

Drug treatment (medicines for the treatment of knee joint arthrosis)

Medications are important in the treatment of gonartrosis, especially in situations when you should urgently relieve symptoms of acute pain and reduce inflammation.For this purpose, doctors prescribe anti -inflammatory non -steroids (NSAIDs): Diclofenac, indomethacin, nimesulide and others.To combat a severe inflammatory process, steroids have been prescribed, and to improve the condition of cartilage tissue - medicines for joints and vasodilating medicines.All of these medicines are prescribed in both tablet and cream form, ointments, injection solution (with any degree of severity of knee joint arthrosis).

A special mention is deserved with the plasmolifting method - the introduction of the patient's blood plasma enriched with the plasma in the knee -affected knee joint.This technique is successfully used in sports medicine, where special attention is paid to the rapid restoration of the muscle system.

It has long been considered one of the main popular remedies for arthritis: it was used both for infusions (for example, from flowers born) and for wrappings and massage.It is difficult to say how honey helps to eliminate the causes of the disease, but this tool will eventually do not do harm - even doctors even say.

Surgical treatment

Objects of varying degrees of invasiveness are created not only to relieve the symptoms of the disease but also to eliminate its causes.

• Puncture.To get rid of excess fluid in the joint cavity, surgeons are directed to the puncture - such minimal invasive interference reduces inflammation and restores knee mobility.
• Arthroscopy.If arthritis requires surgical surgery (usually with 2 degrees of severity), it can be performed endoscopically - this technique does not require dissection of the joint cavity, and all manipulations are performed by flexible thin tools under the control of micro -kamera control.Arthroscopy involves cleaning the common surfaces from fragments of destroyed cartilage.
• Osteotomy near the joints is a more traumatic intervention.During surgery, one of the bones that form the knee joint is cut, and then fixed again, but at another angle.This approach allows you to redistribute the knee load, which reduces the pain syndrome and increases knee mobility.Osteotomy is usually used for 1 and 2 degrees of knee osteoarthrosis.
• Endoprostetics means replacing the knee joint with compatible bio design, providing the previous volume of movements.This complex surgical intervention requires prolonged rehabilitation, so, as a rule, patients with 3 degrees gonartrosis are placed for it.

Non -surgical methods of deformation treatment of osteoarthritis

But yet, any surgery is a serious test for the body, so people suffering from knee joint arthritis prefer conservative treatment.Practice shows that physiotherapeutic and other methods, as well as a change in lifestyle, lead to a tangible improvement, with minimizing the use of pharmaceuticals.

Physiotherapy

• Shock wave therapy (UVT) has been used in clinics for 20 years.During the procedure, the doctor acts in the affected area with a device that generates radial acoustic waves (2000–4000 pulfations per procedure).The therapeutic effect is achieved due to the activation of the blood supply in the fusion and stimulation of bone and cartilage restoration processes.
• Myostimulation implies the effect of the muscles that surround the joint with impulses of poor current, due to which the mobility in the injured feet increases, the pain descends and the durability increases in physical activity.
• Phonoforesis - a combination of ultrasonic therapy and the effects of medication, which is very effective for gonarthrosis.It is known that normally, only 5-7% of the medicine in the form of oil, gel or cream is absorbed through the skin.With this procedure, high -frequency vibration heats the knee tissue and improve the absorption of the drug, which makes it possible to save expensive medicines while getting a good result.
• Ozonotherapy.The effect of active oxygen on the tissue has an anti -inflammatory and analgesic effect, through which with arthrosis of the knee joint, you may refuse to take hormonal medication or reduce their dose.

Kinetherapy

• Physical medical education (exercise therapy), according to doctors, allows a responsible patient and an arthritis worker to "escape" from surgery.Daily exercises according to a particular technique without problems strengthen the leg muscles, which in some cases return the pathological process, turning the patient into the previous movement.The main factor of success is a competent sequence of exercises that an experienced instructor for exercise therapy shows.
• Massage (including lymphatic drainage) and manual therapy - passive effect methods on the patient's muscles, joints and ligaments.They are suitable for sitting patients and are perfectly combined with exercise therapy, physiotherapy and treatment of medication for osteoarthrosis deformity.
• Mechanicotherapy involves the use of special equipment that enhances the effect of exercise and massage therapy - vibrating simulators, weighing and mechanical massages.
• Joint traffic is a mechanical growth in the space of their cavity, due to which the pain and destruction of the joint removes.Implementation of the course of this technique allows for several years to delay the progression of the arthrosis of the knee joint.

Dietary therapy

Consultation with a nutritionist and subsequent treatment of overweight and overweight is an effective addition to the main methods of combating the arthrosis of any localization.Weight loss relieves load on the joints and relieves exercise therapy in fatty people.Often, radical treatment of overweight - bariatric surgery - allows you to diagnose people who have suffered from arthritis for many years.

Orthopedic doctors recommend thinking about knee health even before you first feel pain in the area.Recommendations are simple: monitor weight, carefully select the appropriate shoes, approach physical training, engage in swimming (it removes load from all joints at the same time), avoid the hypothermia and abandon smoking.