Knee pain is a very common phenomenon in a person's life. This can be due to many factors. Often, the main reason is that, due to its anatomy, the knee joint is prone to injury and is subjected to enormous loads on a daily basis, especially in people who are overweight. Symptoms may also occur during vigorous exercise during daily home or professional activities.
Causes of knee pain
The knee joint consists of many different elements, each carrying its own functional load. Why does my knee hurt? The following factors can cause knee pain:
- trauma;
- damage;
- Malnutrition of any element.
Knee pain is a symptom of a wide range of knee disorders. What causes knee pain? In order to accurately determine the cause in a particular situation, diagnostic measures are required. Pain may be the result of elemental trauma:
- ligament device;
- tendon formation;
- Endochondral damage.
For various diseases of the knee joint, in addition to pain, specific manifestations will be characteristic, determined in laboratory studies, instruments and others.
arthritis
If your knee hurts after prolonged rest or weight bearing, it's arthritis. This knee pathology is detected in about 5-15% of patients who consult a doctor about pain in the joint area.
fact! Arthritis is a common disease in the population of all age groups, but younger people are more susceptible to the disease.
The characteristic sign of most arthritis is severe pain in the knee that is acute - within 1-2 days.
Arthritis is an inflammatory process, so acute pain in the knee is accompanied by the following signs:
- edema;
- swelling;
- congestion;
- Severe pain that worsens at night.
With arthropathy and meniscal cartilage damage, pain can manifest or increase with exercise load on the knee joint, that is, if the knee joint is unloaded, the pain is lessened, unlike arthritis. With arthritis, the cause of the pain syndrome is different, and getting rid of it by lightening the load and immobilizing the joint won't work. Also, arthritis can affect multiple joints at the same time, with the exception of the knee.
joint
Another very common knee disease, with severe pain. 35-40% of patients with knee pain have pathology, usually over 40 years old, and the left and right knees are often affected at the same time. Severe pain may not appear right away, but the sensation increases gradually over time: for someone a week or two, for someone - a month. Unlike arthritis, the knee joint only hurts when you are bearing weight:
- At first, a person experiences pain after a long walk.
- Even short walks can bring a lot of discomfort over time.
- Later, the patient had difficulty going up and down the stairs.
- It is difficult to get up from a chair, that is, to straighten your knees with weight.
- If you rest and immobilize the joint, the pain syndrome goes away.
Over time, without proper treatment, symptoms can greatly worsen:
- joint deformation;
- It makes a crackling sound when walking or extending the knee.
- Pain intensifies.
The pathogenesis is due to structural damage, degeneration of the inner layer of cartilage in the articular cavity, resulting in joint deformity. Primary arthropathy or the result of age-related natural wear and tear of cartilage, secondary - the result of injury or some other cause. These causes may be infectious arthritis, neoplastic lesions of bone or cartilage tissue, and thus the disease may appear in people of different ages.
meniscal disease
They are also a common cause of joint pain.
for reference! About 25-35% of patients who seek help for knee pain have meniscal injuries of various etiologies.
The condition occurs in people of any age, in all professional activities, and is equally common in men and women. Meniscus injuries during active movement:
- At the moment of the injury, a typical clicking sound will be heard, after which the knee will be severely injured.
- Then there is a tightening or crepitus in the knee.
- After that, the pain was severe and intensified.
- A person in this state cannot move the knee joint at all.
The pain may subside over time, and the meniscal disease can become chronic. But without proper treatment, there can be edema, swelling of the joints, impeded movement, accompanied by severe pain, and can lead to the development of arthropathy. The risk groups are:
- people with gout or joint arthritis;
- diabetic patients;
- People with weak or overweight ligaments.
The disease is diagnosed using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and treated conservatively or surgically depending on the severity.
tendonitis
Tendonitis is an inflammatory process in the muscle-tendon tissue, where it attaches. This disorder most commonly affects active children and adolescents, athletes:
- cyclist;
- basketball player;
- volleyball player;
- athlete.
The disease exists in two forms:
- Tenosynovitis is inflammation of the tendon sheath.
- Tenosynovitis is a lesion of the tendon pocket.
The cause of this phenomenon can be not only active sports-related injuries, but also the following diseases:
- gout;
- arthritis;
- immunodeficiency state;
- infectious diseases;
- excessive physical activity;
- Muscle imbalance in the force acting on the joint.
With tendinitis, the knee is painful in paroxysms, that is, the pain increases with the load on the tendon, and in severe forms or later stages of the disease, the inflamed tendon may rupture. Diseases are diagnosed in a variety of ways and can sometimes be detected by laboratory methods, for example, when the cause is infection.
But if the cause is gout or an inflammatory process in the joint itself, then radiological research methods and magnetic resonance imaging can detect the disease.
In the initial stages of disease progression, conservative treatment can help, including immobilizing the joint with a cast and limiting motor activity. Various drugs are prescribed:
- tissue repair devices;
- anti-inflammatory drugs;
- antibiotic.
Physiotherapy procedures are also prescribed. In advanced cases, with necrosis, surgical removal of dead tissue and plastic tendon formation.
Knee Bursitis
It is a disease of the joint pocket characterized by an inflammatory process and the presence of exudate.
for reference! The cause of bursitis is persistent, excessive stress on the joints.
If we are talking about infectious pathology, the following factors may be the cause:
- Damaged skin in the knee area;
- open wound injuries;
- Various septic tank conditions;
- infection in the blood;
- overweight;
- Increased load on joints.
In addition, pathology is secondary and is a complication of gouty disease or arthritis of the knee. Like any inflammatory process, bursitis can be accompanied by the following symptoms:
- pain syndrome;
- Significant changes in joint shape;
- swelling in the knee area;
- redness;
- Movement is severely difficult.
The severity and visibility of these manifestations will depend on the severity and localization of the process.
Depending on the location of the inflamed joint capsule, there are the following types of pathology:
- prepatellar;
- super;
- Subpatellar bursitis.
Usually, this pathology is easy to diagnose and treat, with the exception of elderly patients, who are chronic and difficult to treat.
Baker's cyst
Another pathological phenomenon of the knee joint that brings a lot of pain and trouble. A cyst, also called a popliteal hernia, is a protrusion of the popliteal fossa. Normally, between the tendons, the gastrocnemius, and the semimembranosus, on the back of the knee area, there is an intertendinous pocket. A pathological effusion develops in the joint cavity, infiltrating the intertendinous pocket due to the following factors:
- trauma;
- changes in malnutrition;
- inflammatory process.
As a result, the bag enlarges and becomes apparent, which is called a Baker's cyst. In the initial stages of development, it can be invisible and cause no apparent discomfort, i. e. it is asymptomatic. Later, due to the increased size, the knee hurts badly as the cyst begins to compress nerves and blood vessels, and the mobility of the joint is impaired. Flexion movements become difficult and are also accompanied by severe pain.
Anatomy of osteochondrosis
This disorder is also a common cause of knee pain. Typically, the articular surfaces that make up the knee joint are lined with cartilage. This pathology is due to the necrosis and shedding of the inner cartilage in a small area, resulting in the formation of a free lying body in the joint cavity, which can cause many problems.
Its symptoms are as follows:
- mild pain and discomfort;
- Pain increases when you move;
- Swelling may occur.
Once the detached cartilage tissue fragments enter the joint cavity, it hinders the patient's movement, which is the patient's complaint, and you will hear a characteristic clicking or creaking sound when moving. After exfoliation, there are still defects in the smooth joint surface, which can lead to trauma to the joint and, in the future, osteoarthritis or other diseases.
Doctors believe frequent joint injuries are responsible for the development of the disease, but sometimes some patients have no previous injuries. Diagnosis is based on methods of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray examination.
gout
Knee gout, or gouty arthritis, is the result of impaired metabolism, which leads to the excessive formation and deposition of urate (so-called urate). They accumulate in the joint cavity itself and around cartilage and tendons, and cause inflammation.
With the disease, there is severe pain in the joints, and the knee area becomes red and swollen. If the gout becomes chronic gout, the urate deposits can cause significant deformity of the joints, resulting in irregularities and inability to perform a normal range of motion.
The disease is diagnosed with the help of X-rays and blood uric acid tests. It is difficult to treat, but in the initial stages of development, it is treated with a special diet and medication.
The cause of knee pain can be many different pathologies with completely different etiologies and pathogenesis. Therefore, only a specialist can answer why the knee joint hurts after diagnosis.
General principles of treatment
Everyone wants to know what to do if your knee hurts? A lot of people, ostensibly mild pain, discomfort, would rather endure it because they think it will pass by itself and shouldn't. Knee pain is because it is a manifestation of various diseases that can lead to serious consequences if not treated promptly and adequately.
If the knee is injured, treatment involves treatment of the pathology that caused the pain. Based on the results of a diagnostic study, a doctor will prescribe appropriate treatment and decide how to treat the diseased joint. These might be the following methods:
- special therapeutic and preventive exercises;
- ointment;
- compression.
Anti-inflammatory substances are prescribed if inflammation occurs, and various chondroprotective or corticosteroid drugs are used if there is a problem with cartilage tissue.
for reference! A puncture can be performed for diagnosis and treatment, for example, in the case of Becker's cyst.
Occasionally, as the pathology progresses, surgical treatment is required, which is also varied. In most cases, they resort to arthroscopic surgery: in order to remove the joint body or to excise the area of affected tissue. In addition, knee arthroplasty, which replaces joint elements or the entire joint with artificial implants, is used if other treatments are ineffective. So the answer to the question "what to do if your knee hurts" is to see a doctor right away.