Knee pain is one of the most common symptoms for which patients consult orthopedists and other specialists.Many people completely ignore the appearance of unpleasant sensations, considering that they are age-related and almost natural.But there are many reasons for pain in the knee joint, because it has a complex structure and is affected by several external and internal damaging factors.Some illnesses are serious and require immediate treatment.
Who is more likely to injure their knee joint?
The knee is made up of several bones connected by muscles, ligaments, and tendons.There are also 5 synovial bursae - cavities surrounded by membranes designed to protect the joints.Between the bone joints there is interarticular cartilage - menisci, which help the knee to move freely.Disruption of even one area of the knee joint leads to the appearance of unpleasant symptoms.
Pain in the knee joint occurs mainly in people with flat feet.This is a foot pathology that interferes with the ability of the limb to absorb shock.With age, the increased load on the joints causes their destruction and the development of inflammatory phenomena - pain syndrome appears.Different types of leg and lower leg deformities have similar consequences.
There are several factors under the influence of knee pain appearing more often:
- Overweight;
- Passive lifestyle;
- High sports load;
- Diabetes mellitus;
- Vascular disease;
- old age;
- Knee surgery and injuries;
- Work with increased load on the legs.
The causes and treatment of knee pain vary greatly, as does the severity of the sensation.If your knee hurts badly, the cause may be an injury or an advanced stage of arthrosis, a severe inflammatory process.Sometimes the symptoms become permanent, present even at rest, accompanied by swelling, redness of the skin, and dryness.All these signs should warn a person and force him to visit a doctor.
Pain due to bruises in the knee
Among the traumatic causes of joint dysfunction, bruises are the most common.Why does my knee hurt if the symptoms are preceded by just a small bruise?Even minor injuries are accompanied by bleeding into the soft periarticular tissue and its swelling.As a result, the nerve root suffers and pain appears.
In more serious cases, the pain in the knee increases when bending and extending the leg, and the person stops moving because of a sharp sensation in the joint.On palpation, you can see leg swelling;it is hot to the touch.How to treat such injuries?You should contact a traumatologist, take an x-ray, follow all recommendations and give rest to your leg.
Often the cause of pain in the knee joint after a superficial bruise is traumatic hemarthrosis.This is the pouring of blood into the joint cavity, causing edema and swelling of the synovial membrane.As a result, the joint fills with blood and inflammation begins.Without proper treatment, injuries can lead to the development of chronic arthrosis even at a young age.
Other types of knee injuries
If your leg hurts in the knee, and an injury contributes to this sensation, the reason may lie in various damage to the components of the joint.Here are the main ones:
- Meniscopathy.Indicates flattening or tearing of the meniscus.Injuries are common in professional athletes, people involved in extreme sports, and even in household injuries.A person feels that his knee is very painful, the nature of the sensation is piercing, like a dagger, the joint loses mobility for some time.
- Ligament damage.A ligament tear (sprain) occurs when the leg is twisted, after jumping, or when the limb is extended in an improper position.A sharp pain appears, the leg swells, the position of the joint changes, it becomes loose.
- Rupture of the cruciate ligament.Because these ligaments are located within the joint, injuries often lead to bleeding into the knee cavity.Only a puncture will help pump blood and make an accurate diagnosis.
Pain in the knee joint sometimes accompanies chronic dislocation of the patella.Without treatment of the acute injury, in some patients the dislocation becomes chronic and causes frequent recurrences.In children, this pathology causes an X-shaped curvature of the legs and leads to serious functional impairment.Sometimes the pathology affects the knees on both legs.
Inflammatory disease of the knee
Often, standard treatments for knee pain are ineffective.In this case, it may not be the joint itself that is affected, but the soft tissue around it.Therefore, tendonitis, or tendon inflammation, can be triggered by increased load on the limbs, past leg injuries, allergies, reactions to medications, etc.With this disease, the knee joint hurts, as a rule, during the day or in the evening;pain decreases at night.In the acute stage, joint mobility is very limited, this syndrome is persistent and cannot be treated with ointments and creams.A sharp sensation is also noted when palpating the side of the knee.
If your knee hurts often, the symptoms worsen after hypothermia, the cause may be synovitis - inflammation of the synovial membrane.Inflammatory exudate appears in the joint, which causes a sensation of rupture and pain.Pathological causes are different:
- Autoimmune diseases;
- Metabolic diseases;
- Past trauma;
- Arthrosis.
Another "popular" disease that causes knee pain is bursitis.It occurs when the bursa (joint capsule) becomes inflamed.In addition to pain, redness, swelling, and increased sensitivity of the patella area are observed.If you do not explain in time how to treat bursitis, it almost always becomes chronic.
Neoplasm of the knee joint area
Malignant tumors in this location are rare;pain syndrome is characteristic of them only in the final stage.More often, pain in the knee joint is characteristic of a benign formation:
- Baker's cyst.This tumor occurs below the knee, on its back surface.In appearance, the skin above the cyst is normal, not inflamed;when bent, there may be no swelling at all.In a standing position, a clear, soft, elastic formation appears at the site of the cyst.It appears after a unilateral knee injury or cartilage damage.Cysts often accompany chronic synovitis, arthrosis, rheumatoid arthritis.A large cyst causes not only pain in the knee, but also serious limitation of limb movement.Due to the compression of blood vessels and nerves, other symptoms include cold, pale skin, goosebumps and numbness.
- Meniscal cyst.Appears in the external or internal meniscus when a cavity with fluid is localized in the cartilage.In this case, the knee hurts after heavy loads or at the end of the day.Large cysts can be seen on the side of the joint, small ones can only be seen by ultrasound or x-ray.
A rare pathology is Hoffa's disease - the transformation of joint fatty tissue, which becomes fibrous and causes joint dysfunction.Against the background of this pathology, arthrosis often develops, which causes pain in the knee joint.Reason: hormonal imbalance, menopause in women.
Infectious joint pathology
Against the background of infection, the knee joint hurts sharply, sharply, giving rest does not relieve the condition.Even urogenital and intestinal infections can cause complications in the musculoskeletal system, resulting in reactive arthritis.Bacteria (salmonella, chlamydia, gonococci and others) penetrate into the bone joint cavity with the bloodstream, settle in the tissue and cause inflammation.The veins are usually also inflamed, causing the knee to become swollen and hot to the touch.
Tuberculosis is a serious disease.Mycobacterium tuberculosis multiplies in bone tissue, causing bone liquefaction and necrosis of cartilage and soft tissue.Without emergency treatment, the knee joint hurts and collapses, and the process covers an increasingly large area.As a result, a fistula appears - a cavity with pus, which can pour out and cause damage to the whole body.
An acute and urgent disease is bone osteomyelitis.What to do if your knee hurts, and the process is accompanied by weakness, muscle pain, and fever up to 40 degrees?If the pain in the knee is dull, bursting, and the tissue itself is swollen, red, and blue, you need to immediately call an ambulance and go for emergency surgery.Otherwise, you might lose your leg or die.
Knee pain - the cause of degenerative nature
After the age of 50, a large number of people experience knee pain.Prerequisites are aging of the body, wear and tear of joints and the development of the most common pathology - osteoarthritis (gonarthrosis).It leads to thinning and destruction of cartilage with changes in the shape of the bone head.Often, in the early stages of the pathology, the knee hurts on one side;after several years, the lesions become bilateral.The stiffness in my legs bothered me in the morning, but it went away quickly.Increased sensations may occur after physical work, intense sports, or long walks.
At an advanced stage, the articular tissue collapses, and osteophytes grow to the sides of the joint space.This is the spine made of bone tissue, which in severe cases breaks and causes unbearable pain.There are several other degenerative pathologies, the symptoms of which will be similar to gonarthrosis:
- Osteochondropathy.Affects the articular surface of bones, associated with injuries and sports.It can develop in teenagers for no apparent reason.
- Joint pain.It can be rheumatoid, psoriatic, gout, and cause chronic inflammation and joint destruction.
- Chondromatosis.Etiology is not clear.This disease causes the appearance of nodes on the synovial membrane, which limits the movement of the knee and causes pain.
Women in menopause often experience knee pain due to osteoporosis - thinning of the bones, increasing their fragility.This disease is accompanied by leg cramps, pain in the spine, and periodic bone fractures.
Other causes of knee pain
When your knee hurts, the etiology of the sensation may also lie in damage to the peripheral nervous system.Therefore, neuropathy of the sciatic nerve against the background of damage to the lumbar vertebrae leads to several symptoms.A person's knee pain, hip pain, weak limb joints, and impaired skin sensitivity.Leg reflexes also change.
Sometimes the entire knee joint hurts due to vascular disorders.Only in adolescence you do not need to worry too much - due to the rapid growth of the body, the vessels do not have time to supply the bones with blood.With age, the condition of the joints becomes normal - usually at the age of 18-20 the pain stops completely.
In old age, with atherosclerosis, the knee also often hurts, what to do in this case?Without normalizing fat metabolism, plaque will continue to be deposited in the arteries.The vessel becomes clogged and stops supplying the connection completely.Arthrosis develops in it, and the pain becomes chronic.Unpleasant sensations in the knee area can also be caused by varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, and vascular thrombosis.
How to make a diagnosis?
People experience knee pain quite often;how to treat the condition can only be determined after examination.Both sharp and painful pain in the knee are characteristic of many pathologies, some of them are very dangerous.For diagnosis, you need to contact a surgeon, orthopedist, neurologist, rheumatologist or traumatologist.He will conduct a survey, find out the true symptoms of the disease, and identify the accompanying signs.Also, at the initial appointment, the doctor will conduct a series of tests and physical examinations to clarify the nature of the problem.
What to do when your knee hurts, what instrumental methods will help identify the cause?Usually set:
- Ultrasound;
- MRI;
- CT;
- Radiography.
The choice of the right technique should be left to the doctor.Therefore, ultrasound does a good job of reflecting changes in the foot due to arthrosis and damage to the menisci.X-ray perfectly shows bone deformation and the presence of osteophytes.MRI and CT provide complete information;they are indispensable for complex diseases.In addition, the doctor will prescribe blood tests to rule out inflammation and rheumatism, and if necessary, a joint biopsy will be performed.For osteoporosis, densitometry is needed - it will show the patient's bone density.
Knee pain treatment
If the pathology is traumatic, treatment is carried out by a traumatologist, sometimes it is carried out in a hospital.Mild bruising disappears on its own within a few days;to resolve the hematoma quickly, it is advisable to apply absorbable ointment to the knee.If pain occurs, ointment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory components should be applied.
How to treat when the knee hurts due to inflammatory lesions?In the acute stage of bursitis, synovitis, arthritis, the affected leg needs rest;ice compresses can be applied to it for 15 minutes in the first 3 days.Severe pain is relieved by injection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and injection of anesthetic directly into the joint.To prevent chronic inflammation of the joints after the pain subsides, physiotherapy and exercise therapy are prescribed.
When a person has pain in his knee due to gonarthrosis, what should he do in this case?The main drugs for treatment are chondroprotectors and hyaluronic acid injections.These drugs aim to restore nutrition to the articular cartilage, as a result of which it stops deteriorating.Also, for knee rehabilitation, the following must be established:
- Vascular drugs;
- Physiotherapy;
- Gymnastics;
- Massage;
- Vitamin complex.
Infectious diseases of the joints are an indication for the introduction of antibiotics into the joint cavity or taking drugs orally.In some cases, it is necessary to perform surgery to remove the tissue affected by the pus.Advanced forms of arthrosis with osteophyte proliferation are also treated with surgical intervention.Sometimes simply replacing a joint with a prosthesis allows a person to maintain the ability to walk normally.