Pain in the knee joint is a very common phenomenon in a person's life. It can be due to many factors. As a rule, the main reason is that, due to its anatomical structure, the knee joint is quite vulnerable to injuries, it is subjected to huge daily loads, especially in overweight people. It is also possible to develop a symptom during intensive sports, during daily household or professional activities.
Causes of knee pain
The knee joint consists of many different elements, each carrying its own functional load. Why do my knees hurt? The following factors can cause pain in the knee joint:
- wounding?
- damage;
- dystrophy of any of the elements.
Knee pain is a symptomatic manifestation of a huge number of diseases of the knee joint. What causes knee pain? To accurately determine the cause in a particular case, diagnostic measures are required. Pain can be the result of trauma to the elements:
- Connecting device?
- tendon formations;
- damage to the cartilage lining.
For various knee diseases, in addition to pain, specific manifestations, determined in laboratory, instrumental and other studies, will be characteristic.
Arthritis
If the knees hurt after a long period of rest or heavy loads, this is arthritis. This pathology of the knee joint is detected in about 5-15% of patients who consult a doctor for pain in the joint area.
Fact! Arthritis is a disease that is common in all age groups of the population, but young people are more prone to the disease.
A characteristic sign for most arthritis is an acute pain in the knee, that is, an acute onset - within 1-2 days.
Arthritis is an inflammatory process, so acute pain in the knee joint is accompanied by such signs:
- edema;
- swelling;
- hyperemia;
- severe pain that worsens at night.
With arthropathy and damage to the cartilage of the meniscus, the pain is manifested or intensified with a kinetic load on the knee joint, that is, the pain will be relieved if there is no load on the knee, unlike arthritis. With arthritis, the pain syndrome is of a different etiology, and it will not work to get rid of it by reducing the load and immobilizing the joint. In addition, arthritis can affect many joints at the same time, except the knee.
arthropathy
Another very common condition of the knee, accompanied by severe pain. The pathology is found in 35-40% of people who come with knee pain, as a rule, this age group is over 40 years old, both the left and right knee are often affected at the same time. Severe pain may not appear immediately, but the sensations increase gradually over time: for someone a week or two, for someone - for a month. Unlike arthritis, the knee only hurts when you put a load on it:
- At first, a person feels pain after a long walk.
- Over time, even walking short distances brings a lot of discomfort.
- Later, the patient has great difficulty going up and down stairs.
- It is difficult to get up from a chair, that is, to bend your knees with a load.
- The pain syndrome disappears if you rest, immobilize the joint.
Over time, without proper treatment, the symptoms worsen greatly:
- the joint is deformed.
- there is a cracking sound when you walk or extend the knee.
- the pain intensifies.
The pathogenesis is due to destruction of the structure, degeneration of the cartilaginous lining of the joint cavity, which leads to deformation of the joint. Primary or age-related arthropathy occurs as a result of natural wear and tear of cartilage, secondary - is the result of injuries or many other reasons. Such causes can be infectious arthritis, tumor lesions of bones or cartilage tissue, as a result of which this disease appears in people of different age groups.
Meniscipathies
It is also a common cause of joint pain.
For reference! Among patients who seek help for knee pain, approximately 25-35% have meniscal injuries of various etiologies.
This pathology is noted in people of all ages, in various professional activities and is equally common in men and women. Menisci are injured during active movements:
- At the time of the injury, a characteristic click is heard, after which the knee may be very painful.
- Then a critical or irritation in the knee.
- After that, a sharp pain is felt, which intensifies.
- A person in this condition cannot move the knee joint at all.
The pain may subside after a while, and meniscopathy becomes chronic. But without proper treatment, edema develops, the joint swells and movements in it can be blocked, which is accompanied by severe pain and can lead to the development of arthropathy. The risk group is:
- people suffering from gout or arthritis.
- diabetics;
- people with weak ligaments or overweight.
The diagnosis of the disease is made using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and is treated, depending on the severity, conservatively or surgically.
Tendonitis
Tendonitis is an inflammatory process in the tissues of the muscle tendons, at the point of their attachment. This disease most often affects active children and adolescents, athletes:
- cyclists;
- basketball players;
- volleyball players;
- athletes.
The disease occurs in two forms:
- Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendon sheath.
- Tenosinitis is a damage to the tendon sac.
The cause of this phenomenon can be not only an injury related to active movement, but also such diseases:
- arthritis;
- arthritis;
- immunodeficiency states;
- infectious diseases;
- excessive physical activity;
- muscle imbalance of the forces acting on the joint.
With tendinitis, the knees ache paroxysmically, that is, the pain increases with load on the tendon, in severe forms or in the later stages of the disease, rupture of the inflamed tendon is possible. The disease is diagnosed in various ways, sometimes it can be detected by laboratory methods, for example, when the cause is an infection.
But if the cause is gout or inflammatory processes in the joint itself, then radiographic research methods and magnetic resonance imaging can detect the disease.
In the initial stages of the development of the disease, conservative treatment helps, which includes immobilizing the joint with plaster and limiting motor activity. Various medications are prescribed:
- means for tissue repair.
- anti-inflammatory drugs?
- antibiotics.
Physiotherapy procedures are also prescribed. In advanced cases, with necrosis, surgical removal of dead tissue and plastic tendons is performed.
knee bursitis
This is a disease of the synovial bags, characterized by an inflammatory process and the presence of exudative fluid.
For reference! The causes of bursitis are constant, excessive pressure on the joint.
If we are talking about pathologies of an infectious nature, then the following factors may be the cause:
- skin damage in the knee area.
- open wound wounds;
- various septic conditions;
- the presence of infection in the blood.
- overweight;
- increased load on the joint.
Also, the pathology is secondary, as a complication of gout or arthritis of the knee joint. Like any inflammatory process, folliculitis will be accompanied by symptoms:
- pain syndrome;
- noticeable changes in the shape of the joint.
- the presence of swelling in the knee area.
- redness;
- severe difficulty moving.
The severity and visibility of these manifestations will depend on the severity and localization of the process.
Depending on the localization of the inflammatory capsule of the joint, there are such types of pathology:
- prepatellar;
- suprapatellar;
- subpatellar bursitis.
This pathology, as a rule, is diagnosed and treated quite easily, with the exception of cases with elderly patients, in whom it is chronic and difficult to treat.
Baker cyst
Another pathological phenomenon of the knee joint, which brings with it a lot of pain and suffering. The cyst is also called a popliteal hernia, it is a protrusion in the popliteal fossa. Normally, between the tendons, gastrocnemius, and semimembranosus muscles, on the posterior surface of the knee region, there is a mediastinal sac. As a result of the following factors, a pathological effusion is formed in the joint cavity, which penetrates into the mesotendon sac:
- wound;
- dystrophic changes;
- inflammatory processes.
As a result, the bag grows, becomes noticeable and this is called Baker's cyst. In the initial stages of development, it can be invisible, not causing obvious discomfort, that is, it can be asymptomatic. Later, due to the increase in size, the knee becomes very painful, as the cyst begins to compress the nerves and blood vessels, while the mobility of the joint is also affected. Bending movements become difficult and are also accompanied by severe pain.
Dissection of osteochondrosis
This disease is also a common cause of knee pain. Normally, the articular surfaces that make up the knee joint are lined with cartilage. This pathology is caused by the fact that a small area of the cartilaginous lining becomes necrotic and exfoliates, resulting in the formation of a free-standing body in the joint cavity, which causes many problems.
It manifests itself symptomatically as follows:
- mild pain and discomfort;
- when he moves, the pain intensifies.
- edema may develop.
A detached fragment of cartilaginous tissue, once it enters the joint cavity, can block movement, which patients complain about, and when you move, you can hear characteristic clicks or a tingle. After exfoliation, a defect remains on the smooth articular surface, which contributes to joint injury and in the future will lead to osteoarthritis or other pathologies.
Doctors believe that frequent injuries to the joints are the cause of the development of this disease, but sometimes there are patients who do not have a previous injury. The diagnosis is based on the methods of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray examination.
Gout
Gout or gout of the knee joint occurs as a result of a metabolic disorder, which leads to excessive formation and deposition of uric acid salts, the so-called uric acid. They accumulate both in the joint cavity itself and around the cartilage and tendons and cause inflammation.
With the disease, there is severe pain in the joint, the knee area becomes red and swollen. If gout becomes chronic, then uric acid deposits cause a clear deformation of the joint, which leads to a violation, the inability to perform a normal range of motion.
The diagnosis of the disease is made with the help of x-rays and blood tests for uric acid. It is difficult to treat, but in the initial stages of development, special diets and drug therapy are used.
The causes of knee pain can be many different pathologies with completely different etiology and pathogenesis. Thus, only a specialist doctor can answer the question why the knee hurts for sure after the diagnosis.
General principles of treatment
Everyone wonders if the knee hurts, what to do? Many people, with the appearance of mild pain, discomfort, prefer to endure, because they believe that it will pass by itself, this should not be done. The knee joint hurts because it is a manifestation of various pathologies, and in the absence of timely, appropriate treatment, these pathologies can lead to serious consequences.
If the knees hurt, then the treatment includes the treatment of the pathology that caused the pain. Based on the results of the diagnostic studies, the doctor prescribes the appropriate treatment and decides how to treat the diseased joints. These can be the following methods:
- special therapeutic and preventive exercises.
- ointments;
- compresses.
In case of inflammatory phenomena, anti-inflammatory substances are prescribed, and if there are problems with cartilage tissue, then various chondroprotective or corticosteroid drugs.
For reference! It is possible to perform a puncture, both for diagnosis and for treatment, for example, in the case of a Becker cyst.
Sometimes, with advanced pathology, surgical treatment is indicated, which is also varied. In most cases, they resort to arthroscopic operations: to remove the synovial body or resect the area of affected tissue. Also, if other treatment is ineffective, knee arthroplasty is used, i. e. replacement of articular elements or the entire joint with an artificial implant. So, the answer to the question "what to do if the knee hurts" is an immediate visit to the doctor.