Of all the joints in the human body, knee pain is the most common complaint of people. The knee joint is complex, it bears a great load during different types of physical activity, so there can be many reasons for the pain. Knee pain, even if it occurs occasionally and goes away on its own, should not go unnoticed.
Knee pain, whatever the intensity, significantly impairs quality of life. There's no joy in your favorite type of outdoor activity, efficiency drops, and a simple shopping trip becomes a problem.
In our article, we will consider what to do if knee joints hurt, how to treat them, and whether it is possible to get rid of knee discomfort for good - the last question is especially relevant for seniors who consider sedentary movement and joint pain syndrome a indispensable age companion.
pain diagnosis
- It is necessary to discover the nature of pain. The pain can be sharp, burning, searing, aching.
- Abolish the circumstances of the onset of pain - at night, after exertion, when walking, in the morning, sudden sharp pain.
- There were other signs of joint damage: swelling, hyperemia (redness), joint deformity, grinding, restricted mobility.
- Check for a history of infection, stress, leg injury, or increased physical activity.
- Take an instrumental examination in a medical and preventive institution (LPU) - blood test, X-ray diagnosis, analysis of synovial fluid.
Causes of knee pain
There are over 200 joint pathologies, most of them accompanied by more than just pain. Only on the basis of a complex of symptoms and tests can you determine what causes knee pain.
traumatic pathology
In traumatic pathologies, knee pain occurs with joint injuries (blows, falls, prolonged stress on the joints - typical for athletes) or with general diseases of the body.
Let's consider the main traumatic pathologies.
knee fracture
Fracture or displacement of the patella, fractures of the condyles of the femur and/or tibia. When you fall from a height to your knees, in case of car accidents, etc.
The victim feels a sharp and strong pain at the moment of impact, with time the pain does not stop, it may get a little weaker, but it intensifies with pressure or walking.
The joint swells, becomes deformed, fills with blood (hemarthrosis), the knee does not bend, and the patella becomes abnormally mobile.
dislocated knee
It is characterized by the displacement of the bones of the joint in relation to one another. Knee joint dislocation is of varying complexity (complete, incomplete, complicated by soft tissue rupture, etc. ).
Habitual dislocation occurs as a result of a knee injury or as a result of a congenital anomaly: weakness or excessive elasticity of the ligaments, flat slip paths of the femur in the joint, excessively high patellar position.
A dislocated knee joint is quite a serious injury and if you don't take care of it in time, it can all end up in serious complications. Knee joint dislocation is the most painful of all the types, although it is a rare occurrence.
Serious injuries such as dislocations must be treated in medical institutions, so there should be no independent intervention. That's what traumatologists do.
Sprain, rupture of tendons, ligaments
Depending on the degree of damage (partial tears of individual fibers, incomplete tear, complete tear), symptoms occur: crushing and clicking during movement, bruising below the tear site, limitation of joint flexion-extension, swelling of the knee, joint very mobile (with complete rupture of the ligaments). The pain is sharp and intense, but with a small injury it may not appear immediately, but after a while.
bursitis
Inflammation of the periarticular bursa due to trauma, infections, metabolic disorders, autoimmune disease. It often occurs in athletes and people with increased body weight. The knee swells, the pain varies in intensity, but increases with exertion and at night.
Meniscus tear
It may be the result of trauma or degenerative changes in the cartilage tissue. Acute trauma is characterized by severe pain, swelling, and limited mobility. Symptoms of degenerative changes are mild.
joint diseases
Knee pain can be a symptom of a medical condition.
we listthe most common diseases with knee pain syndrome:
Rheumatism
Diagnosis is much less common than in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is due both to the discovery of penicillin (and later to the production of other antibiotics) and to the low diagnostic capacity in the past, when almost all joint diseases were attributed to rheumatism. .
A characteristic sign of rheumatism is alternating joint pain: first one joint becomes inflamed, then the other. For example, knee pain subsides but occurs in another large joint (elbow, hip).
Rheumatism is more common in children and adolescents, the disease develops after a streptococcal infection of the upper respiratory tract.
Note: advanced rheumatism leads to damage to the heart (rheumatic heart disease) or nervous system (chorea).
reactive arthritis
It is more common in people of reproductive age, as joint inflammation is most often caused by pathogenic microbes that sexually enter the human body.
Much less often, reactive arthritis is caused by infections of the gastrointestinal tract or infectious nasopharyngeal inflammation (sore throat, flu). After 1-4 weeks after the illness, the patient notices that his legs have started to ache at night.
Both large joints (knees, ankles) and small joints (the big toe) can become inflamed and painful. Knee pain is accompanied by swelling and/or redness.
Sometimes symptoms include conjunctivitis (inflammation and pain in the eyes), keratoderma (thickening of the skin on the soles of the feet).
Reiter's Syndrome
Urethritis (frequent and painful urination) and bowel disorders add to the symptoms of common reactive arthritis.
osteoarthritis
Elderly disease. Periodically, the knees hurt at night "because of the weather". Load on the joint (long walk) increases pain, swelling and impairs joint mobility.
After rest and warm-up, the pain disappears.
Baker's cyst
Swelling in the back of the knee, causing a feeling of constriction, difficulty in movement.
Osteochondritis dissecans (Köning's disease)
The cartilage covering the bone comes off, the painful knee hurts, and when the fragment comes off completely, movement of the joint is impeded.
Osgood-Schlatter disease
It is most often diagnosed in teenagers. Knee pain increases when going up and down stairs, squatting.
Rheumatoid arthritis
An autoimmune disease, the mechanism of which is unclear. It can be seen that the initial circumstances are the usual list of loads on the immune system: from stress and infection to hypothermia. Immune bodies that attack their own cells cause inflammation of the joint, especially its synovium.
Under the influence of an immune cell attack, the membrane swells, swells, and then begins to grow into nearby cartilage and bone tissue. The result of the process is pain in the knee joints, which becomes unbearable in the second half of the night.
The disease lasts for years, treatment consists of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroid hormones, gold preparations, immunosuppressants, antimalarial drugs.
It arises from improper metabolism. Due to alcohol abuse, "purine" products (meat, smoked meats, pickles).
Uric acid produced in the blood is deposited in the joints in the form of sodium urate crystals. The growing "deposits" gradually affect the mobility of the joint, severe attacks of pain appear, the time interval between attacks is gradually reduced.
Vascular pain in the knees is characterized by a pulling sensation along the vein, sometimes patients notice an acute tingling sensation.
Only a doctor, after a detailed examination, can say why the knee hurts, if there was no obvious injury. It is unwise to rub the knee joint with a remedy that "helped a neighbor". After all, what helps to heal a joint injury can provoke an exacerbation in the autoimmune mechanism of the disease.
Knee pain treatment
The doctor selects a treatment regimen depending on the diagnosis.
Therapeutic measures aim to combat:
- with the cause of the disease - infection, tumor, abnormal metabolic processes, failure of the immune system.
- with pain syndrome - symptomatic treatment includes analgesics, intra-articular blocks.
- with degenerative processes - drugs with chondroprotectors help to restore the cartilage tissue of the joint.
If necessary, resort to surgery, endoprosthesis, physical therapy and therapeutic exercises for the joints.
Pain relief products
Checklist for those with knee pain - what to do to alleviate the condition.
| cause of pain | What to do |
|---|---|
| Pain clearly resulting from trauma | Provide joint and limb immobility, ice or cold compress to the knee. Immediate medical attention. |
| Arthritis pain (reactive, rheumatoid, etc. ) | Specific treatment with antimicrobials and anti-inflammatories is prescribed only by a doctor. For night pains, you can apply a heating compress, ointments based on bee venom. |
| Osteoarthritis pain (post-traumatic, age-related, overweight people) after exercise or at night | Any heating compress with tincture of herbs, rubbing ointments with chondroprotectors. |
Severe joint pain is relieved by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
But most patients (people with excess weight, age-related joint changes) would not have to think about what to do with the pain if they observed the minimum preventive:
- Proper nutrition with a sufficient amount of calcium, vitamins, fights against excess weight;
- Reduction of severe stress on the joint until a job change, if it consists of "standing" all day;
- Systematic physiotherapy to strengthen muscles and ligaments - a good muscular corset reduces the load on the bones;
Joint diseases can develop over the years and lead to a significant deterioration in quality of life. A timely visit to a doctor and an arsenal of folk remedies will help maintain the joy of the movement well into old age.
Joint treatment at home - folk recipes
Homemade recipes for ointments and compresses based on natural ingredients are used in courses - this is the only way to get a lasting result.
7 simple folk remedies for knee pain:
- Cabbage leaves. In a fresh leaf, cuts are made so that the juice comes out. Put a spoon of honey in the middle and apply this "compression" to the knee. The sheet is fixed with a bandage. Wear a bandage all day or do the procedure at night. Burdock and banana leaves are used in a similar way.
- Propolis tincture for arthritis. If the knees "twist" at night (causes of the nagging pain can be anything from changing weather to stress on the legs), lubricate the joint with a mixture, rubbing it into the skin until it dries. If the knees are very sore, they make a complete compress: moisten the soft tissue with dye and apply it to the joint, cover it with a film and wrap it with a tissue. The tool is also used to warm the joint if a painful knee gets cold. In the same way, they use tinctures of natural stimulants: aloe, Kalanchoe, mummy, dead bee.
Important:biologically active substances cannot be used if the disease is autoimmune in nature. Stimulants activate the immune system and worsen the disease.
- Gelatin compress. A piece of gauze soaked in hot water is squeezed out, 1 tsp is poured in the center. gelatin, applied to the joint, wrapped with aluminum foil and wrapped. Repeat the procedure for 14 days at night. The product promotes joint nutrition and cartilage regeneration.
- A mustard compress will help if your knee hurts a lot. Take honey and dry mustard in equal proportions, add warm water and salt until it forms a porridge-like consistency. Lubricate the knee with a mixture, put a cloth with a film and a bandage. Exposure time 20–40 min. , Remove in case of severe burning sensation. A mustard compress is used for pain every other day.
- So that the legs do not hurt, a drug is prepared for oral administration: gelatin is stirred in 0. 5 liters of water in the evening, heated in the morning until it is completely dissolved. The mixture is taken before meals for ¼ – 1/2 cup, they drink for a month.
- Inner goat fat (100 g) is mixed with balm "Zvezdochka" (1 bottle), the resulting ointment is rubbed for venous and joint pain in the knee.
- Kefir mask. 0. 5 l of kefir breadcrumbs, add 1 tsp. soda. The mixture is insisted for 6 hours. Then the liquid is filtered, moistened with gauze, and compresses are made overnight for several days, until the pain subsides.
It is advisable to regularly apply home treatment with folk remedies, combining traditional medicine and modern methods. Do not wait until the disease is already firmly established and declares itself with severe pain, deformation of the joint. An early visit to the doctor will speed recovery, while the chronic form of the disease is more difficult to cure.
Observation:treatment with folk remedies is allowed only with the approval of a doctor, after examination and diagnosis.