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 them 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 a number of external and internal damaging factors.Some diseases are serious and require urgent treatment.
Who is most likely to injure their knee joints?
The knees are 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 joint.Between the joints of the bones there are interarticular cartilages, the menisci, which help the knee move freely.Disturbance of even one area of the knee joint causes the appearance of unpleasant symptoms.
Pain in the knee joint occurs especially in people with flat feet.It is a foot pathology that alters the shock absorption capacity of the extremities.With age, the increased load on the joints causes their destruction and the development of inflammatory phenomena: pain syndrome appears.Various types of foot and lower leg deformities have similar consequences.
There are a number of factors under the influence of which knee pain appears more often:
- Overweight;
- Passive lifestyle;
- High sports loads;
- Diabetes mellitus;
- vascular diseases;
- Old age;
- Knee surgeries and injuries;
- Work with greater load on the legs.
The causes and treatment of knee pain vary greatly, as does the severity of the sensation.If your knee hurts a lot, the cause may be an injury or an advanced stage of osteoarthritis, a severe inflammatory process.Sometimes the symptom becomes permanent, present even at rest, accompanied by swelling, redness of the skin and crackling.All these signs should alert a person and force him to visit a doctor.
Pain from bruising in the knee.
Among the traumatic causes of joint dysfunction, hematomas are the most common.Why does my knee hurt if the symptoms were preceded only by a small bruise?Even a minor injury is accompanied by bleeding into the soft periarticular tissues and their swelling.As a result, the nerve roots suffer and pain appears.
In more severe cases, the pain in the knee intensifies when bending and extending the leg, and the person stops moving due to sharp sensations in the joint.On palpation, swelling of the leg may be noted;It is hot to the touch.How to treat such an injury?You should contact a traumatologist, take an x-ray, follow all recommendations and provide rest to your leg.
Often the cause of pain in the knee joint after a banal bruise is traumatic hemarthrosis.This is a blood spill into the joint cavity, which causes edema and swelling of the synovial membranes.As a result, the joint fills with blood and inflammation begins.Without proper treatment, an injury can lead to the development of chronic osteoarthritis even at a young age.
Other types of knee injuries
If your leg hurts in the knee and an injury contributed to these sensations, the reasons may lie in various damage to the components of the joint.Here are the main ones:
- Meniscopathy.It represents a flattening or tear of the meniscus.Injuries are especially common in professional athletes, people who participate in extreme sports, and also in domestic injuries.A person feels that his knee hurts very much, the nature of the sensations is piercing, dagger-like, the joint loses mobility for some time.
- Ligament damage.A ligament tear (sprain) occurs when the leg is sprained, after a jump, or when the limb is extended in an unnatural position.Sharp pain appears, the leg swells, the position of the joint changes and becomes loose.
- Cruciate ligament rupture.Since these ligaments are located within the joint, the injury often causes bleeding into the knee socket.Only a puncture will help pump the blood and make an accurate diagnosis.
Pain in the knee joint sometimes accompanies chronic dislocations of the kneecap.Without treatment of the acute injury, in several patients the dislocation becomes chronic and causes periodic relapses.In children, this pathology causes an X-shaped curvature of the leg and causes serious impairment of its function.Sometimes the pathology affects the knees of both legs.
Inflammatory diseases of the knees.
Standard treatment for knee pain is often ineffective.In this case, it may not be the joint itself that is affected, but rather the surrounding soft tissue.Therefore, tendonitis or inflammation of the tendon can be caused by increased load on the limb, past injuries to the legs, allergies, reactions to medications, etc.In this disease, the knee joint hurts, as a rule, during the day or night;the pain disappears at night.In the acute stage, joint mobility is severely limited, the syndrome is persistent and cannot be treated with ointments or creams.Sharp sensations are also observed when palpating the lateral part of the knee.
If your knees hurt regularly, the symptom worsens after hypothermia, the cause may be synovitis, an inflammation of the synovial membranes.An inflammatory exudate appears inside the joint, causing bursting and painful sensations.The causes of the pathology are varied:
- autoimmune diseases;
- metabolic diseases;
- Past traumas;
- Osteoarthritis.
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 tenderness are seen in the kneecap area.If it is not clarified in time how to treat bursitis, it almost always becomes chronic.
Neoplasms of the knee joint area.
Malignant tumors in this location are rare;Pain syndrome is characteristic of them only at a very late stage.More often, pain in the knee joint is characteristic of benign formations:
- Baker's cyst.This tumor occurs below the knee, on its posterior surface.In appearance, the skin over the cyst is normal, not inflamed;when it is folded, there may not be any swelling.In a standing position, a clearly defined, soft, elastic formation appears at the site of the cyst.It appears after a unilateral knee injury or cartilage damage.Most often, the cyst accompanies chronic synovitis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.Large cysts not only cause knee pain, but also severe limitation of limb mobility.Due to the compression of blood vessels and nerves, other symptoms include cold skin, paleness, goosebumps, and numbness.
- Meniscus cyst.It appears in the external or internal meniscus when a cavity with fluid is located inside the cartilage.In this case, the knees hurt after high loads or at the end of the day.Large cysts can be noticed on the lateral part of the joint, small ones are only visible using ultrasound or x-ray.
A rare pathology is Hoffa's disease, a transformation of the fatty tissue of the joint, which becomes fibrous and causes joint dysfunction.Against the background of this pathology, osteoarthritis often develops, which causes pain in the knee joint.Reasons: hormonal imbalances, menopause in women.
Infectious joint pathologies.
Against the background of an infection, the knee joint hurts very much, and rest does not relieve the condition.Even urogenital and intestinal infections can cause complications in the musculoskeletal system and lead to reactive arthritis.Bacteria (salmonella, chlamydia, gonococci and others) penetrate into the bone joint cavity with the bloodstream, settle in the tissues and cause inflammation.The tendons also often become inflamed, causing the knee to become swollen and warm to the touch.
Tuberculosis is a serious disease.Mycobacterium tuberculosis multiplies in bone tissue, causing bone fusion and necrosis of cartilage and soft tissue.Without emergency treatment, the knee joints hurt and collapse, and the process involves larger and larger areas.As a result, fistulas appear, cavities with pus that can spill out and damage the entire body.
An acute and urgent disease is osteomyelitis of the bone.What to do if your knees hurt 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 tissues themselves are swollen, red and blue, you should urgently call an ambulance and go for emergency surgery.Otherwise, you could lose your leg or die.
Knee pain – causes of a degenerative nature
After the age of 50, a large number of people suffer from knee pain.The prerequisites are the aging of the body, wear and tear of the joint apparatus and the development of the most common pathology - osteoarthritis (gonarthrosis).It leads to thinning and destruction of cartilage with a change in the shape of the bone heads.Very often, at an early stage of pathology, the knee hurts on one side;After a few years, the lesion becomes bilateral.The stiffness in my leg bothers me in the morning, but it goes away quickly.An increase in sensations is possible after physical work, intense sports or long walks.
In advanced stages, the joint tissues collapse and osteophytes grow towards the sides of the joint space.These are spines formed by bone tissue that, in severe cases, break and cause unbearable pain.There are other degenerative pathologies, whose symptoms will be similar to those of gonarthrosis:
- Osteochondropathy.It affects the articular surface of the bone, associated with injuries and sports.It can develop in adolescents for no apparent reason.
- Arthritis.It can be rheumatoid, psoriatic, gouty and causes chronic inflammation and destruction of the joints.
- Chondromatosis.The etiology is not clear.The disease causes the appearance of nodes in the synovial membranes, which limit knee movement and cause pain.
Women in menopause often have knee pain due to osteoporosis, a thinning of the bones that increases their fragility.The disease is accompanied by leg cramps, pain in the spine and periodic fractures.
Other causes of knee pain
When your knees hurt, the etiology of the sensation may also be due to damage to the peripheral nervous system.Therefore, neuropathy of the sciatic nerve against the background of damage to the lumbar vertebrae causes a number of symptoms.A person's knees hurt, the hip area hurts, the joints of the limbs weaken, and the sensitivity of the skin is disturbed.The reflexes in the legs also change.
Sometimes the entire knee joint hurts due to vascular disorders.Only in adolescence you should not worry too much: due to the rapid growth of the body, the vessels do not have time to supply blood to the bones.With age, the condition of the joint normalizes;Generally, between the ages of 18 and 20, the pain disappears completely.
In old age, with atherosclerosis, the knees also often hurt, what to do in this case?Without normalizing fat metabolism, plaque will continue to deposit inside the arteries.The vessels become clogged and stop completely supplying the joint.Osteoarthritis develops 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 have knee pain quite often;How to treat the condition can only be determined after an examination.Both acute and persistent pain in the knee are characteristic of many pathologies, some of them are very dangerous.For diagnosis, you should contact a surgeon, orthopedist, neurologist, rheumatologist or traumatologist.He will conduct a survey, find out the exact symptoms of the disease and identify the accompanying signs.Additionally, at the initial appointment, the doctor will perform a series of tests and physical examinations to clarify the nature of the problem.
What to do when your knees hurt, what instrumental methods will help identify the causes?Generally prescribed:
- Ultrasound;
- MRI;
- CONNECTICUT;
- Radiography.
Choosing the exact technique should be left to the doctor.Therefore, ultrasound reflects well the changes in the leg due to osteoarthritis and damage to the menisci.X-rays perfectly show bone deformations and the presence of osteophytes.MRI and CT scan provide complete information;They are essential for complex diseases.Additionally, the doctor will prescribe blood tests to rule out inflammation and rheumatism and, if necessary, a biopsy of the joint will be performed.For osteoporosis, densitometry is needed: it will show the patient's bone density.
Knee pain treatment
If the pathology is traumatic in nature, the treatment is carried out by traumatologists and sometimes takes place in a hospital.Minor bruising disappears on its own within a few days;To quickly resolve the hematoma, it is advisable to apply absorbable ointments to the knee.If pain occurs, ointments with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory components should be rubbed.
How to treat when your knee hurts due to your inflammatory injury?In the acute stage of bursitis, synovitis, arthritis, the affected leg requires rest;Ice packs can be applied for 15 minutes for the first 3 days.Severe pain is relieved with injections of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and injections of anesthetics directly into the joint.To prevent chronic inflammation in the joint once the pain goes away, physical therapy and exercise therapy are prescribed.
When a person has pain in the knees due to gonarthrosis, what should he do in this case?The main drugs for treatment are chondroprotectors and hyaluronic acid injections.These drugs are intended to restore the nutrition of the articular cartilage, as a result of which it stops deteriorating.Additionally, for knee rehabilitation the following should be prescribed:
- Vascular medications;
- Physiotherapy;
- Gym;
- Massage;
- Vitamin complexes.
Infectious diseases of the joints are an indication for the introduction of antibiotics into the joint cavities or the reception of medications orally.In some cases, surgery is necessary to remove tissue affected by pus.Advanced forms of osteoarthritis with proliferation of osteophytes are also treated with surgical intervention.Sometimes, only replacing a joint with a prosthesis allows a person to maintain the ability to walk normally.