Knee joint pain is a very common occurrence 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 injury, it is subjected to enormous daily loads, especially in overweight people. It is also possible the appearance of a symptom during intensive sports, in the course of daily domestic or professional activities.
Causes of knee pain
The knee joint consists of many different elements, each of which carries its own functional load. Why do my knees hurt? The following factors can cause pain in the knee joint:
- traumatization;
- damage;
- dystrophy of any of the elements.
Knee pain is a symptomatic manifestation of a huge number of diseases of the knee joint. What are the causes of 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:
- ligament apparatus;
- tendon formations;
- damage to the cartilage lining.
For various diseases of the knee, in addition to pain, specific manifestations will be characteristic, determined in laboratory, instrumental and other studies.
Arthritis
If the knees hurt after a long rest or heavy loads, this is arthritis. This knee joint pathology is detected in about 5-15% of patients who consult a doctor for pain in the joint area.
Done! Arthritis is a disease common to all age groups of the population, but young people are more susceptible to the disease.
A characteristic sign for most of arthritis is severe 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 gets worse at night.
With osteoarthritis and damage to the cartilage of the meniscus, pain occurs or intensifies with a motor 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 has a different etiology and will not work to eliminate it by reducing the load and immobilizing the joint. Also, arthritis can affect multiple joints at the same time, with the exception of the knee.
arthrosis
Another very common knee ailment, accompanied by severe pain. Pathology is found in 35-40% of people suffering from knee pain, as a rule, this age group is over 40, often both the left knee and the right knee are affected at the same time. Severe pain may not appear immediately, but the sensations gradually increase over time: for someone a week or two, for someone - for a month. Unlike arthritis, the knee only hurts when you load it:
- At first, a person feels pain after a long walk.
- Over time, even walking short distances brings a lot of discomfort.
- Subsequently, the patient has great difficulty climbing and descending stairs.
- It is difficult to get up from a chair, that is, to straighten the knees with a load.
- Pain syndrome disappears if you rest, immobilize the joint.
Over time, without proper treatment, the symptoms are significantly aggravated:
- the joint is deformed;
- there is a crackle when walking or knee extending.
- the pain intensifies.
Pathogenesis is due to the destruction of the structure, degeneration of the cartilage lining of the joint cavity, which leads to deformity of the joint. Primary or age-related osteoarthritis occurs due to natural wear of the cartilage, secondary - is the result of injury or a number of other reasons. Such causes can be infectious arthritis, tumor lesions of the bone or cartilage tissue, as a result of which this disease can manifest itself in people of different age categories.
Meniscopathies
They are also a common cause of joint pain.
For reference! Among patients seeking help because they have knee joint pain, approximately 25-35% have meniscal tears of various etiologies.
This pathology is noted in people of any age, various professional activities and is equally common in men and women. Menisci are injured during active movements:
- At the time of injury, a characteristic click is heard, after which it can seriously injure the knee.
- Then a crunch or crackle in the knee.
- After that, severe pain is felt, which intensifies.
- A person in this state cannot move in 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 the movements in it can be blocked, which is accompanied by severe pain and can lead to the development of arthrosis. The risk group is:
- people suffering from gout or joint arthritis;
- diabetics;
- people with weak ligaments or overweight.
The disease is diagnosed by computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and is treated, depending on the severity, conservatively or surgically.
Tendinitis
Tendonitis is an inflammatory process in the tendon tissues of the muscle, in the place of their attack. This disease most often affects active children and adolescents, athletes:
- cyclists;
- basketball players;
- volleyball players;
- athletes.
The disease exists in two forms:
- Tenosynovitis is inflammation of the tendon sheath.
- Tendobesitis is a lesion of the tendon bursa.
The cause of this phenomenon can be not only an injury associated with active movement, but also such diseases:
- gout;
- arthritis;
- states of immunodeficiency;
- infectious diseases;
- excessive physical activity;
- muscle imbalance of the forces acting on the joint.
With tendonitis, the knees ache paroxysically, that is, the pain increases with a load on the tendon, in severe forms or in the later stages of the disease, a 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, radiographic research methods and MRI can detect the disease.
In the initial stages of the development of the disease, conservative therapy helps, which involves immobilization of the joint with gypsum and limitation of motor activity. Various drugs 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 tendon formations is performed.
knee bursitis
This is a disease of the joint bags, characterized by an inflammatory process and the presence of exudative fluid.
For reference! The causes of bursitis are constant and excessive stress on the joint.
If we talk about pathologies of an infectious nature, the cause may be the following factors:
- damage to the skin in the knee area;
- open wounds;
- various septic conditions;
- the presence of an infection in the blood;
- overweight;
- greater load on the joint.
In addition, the pathology is secondary, as a complication of gouty disease or arthritis of the knee joint. Like any inflammatory process, bursitis 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 movement difficulties.
The severity and visibility of these manifestations will depend on the severity and location of the process.
Depending on the localization of the inflamed joint capsule, there are such types of pathology:
- prepatellar;
- supratelyar;
- infrapatellar bursitis.
This pathology, as a rule, is fairly easily diagnosed and treated, with the exception of cases with elderly patients, in which it is chronic and difficult to treat.
Baker's cyst
Another pathological phenomenon of the knee joint, which brings with it a lot of pain and problems. The cyst is also called a popliteal hernia, it is a protrusion in the popliteal fossa. Normally, between the tendons, the gastrocnemius and semimembranous muscles, on the posterior surface of the knee region, there is an intertendinous sac. As a result of the following factors, a pathological effusion is formed in the joint cavity, which penetrates the intertendinous sac:
- trauma;
- dystrophic changes;
- inflammatory processes.
As a result, the bursa increases, becomes noticeable, and this is called a Baker's cyst. In the early stages of development, it can be invisible, does not cause obvious discomfort, that is, it is asymptomatic. Subsequently, due to the increase in size, the knee hurts a lot, as the cyst begins to compress the nerves and blood vessels, and the mobility of the joint is also impaired. Flexion movements become difficult and are also accompanied by severe pain.
Osteochondrosis dissecans
This disease is also a common cause of knee pain. Normally, the joint surfaces that make up the knee joint are lined with cartilage. This pathology is caused by the fact that a small area of the cartilage lining becomes necrotic and exfoliates, as a result of which a loose body is formed in the joint cavity, which causes a lot of problems.
It manifests itself symptomatically as follows:
- mild pain and discomfort;
- when moving, the pain intensifies;
- swelling may develop.
A detached fragment of cartilage tissue, once in the joint cavity, can hinder movement, which patients complain about, and characteristic clicks or a creak may be heard during movement. After exfoliation, a defect remains on the smooth joint surface, which contributes to the traumatization of the joint and in the future will lead to osteoarthritis or other pathologies.
Doctors consider frequent joint injuries to be the cause of the development of this disease, but sometimes there are patients who have no previous injuries. Diagnosis is based on the methods of computed tomography, MRI and X-ray examination.
Gout disease
Gout or gouty arthritis of the knee joint occurs due to impaired metabolism, which leads to excessive formation and deposition of uric acid salts, the so-called urates. 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 turns red and swells. If the gout becomes chronic, the urate deposits cause a clear deformity of the joint, which leads to a violation, the inability to perform a normal range of motion.
The disease is diagnosed with the help of X-rays and blood tests for uric acid. It is difficult to treat, but in the early stages of development, special diets and drug treatments are used.
The causes of knee pain can be many different pathologies with completely different etiology and pathogenesis. So, only a specialist doctor can answer the question of why the knee hurts for sure after diagnosis.
General principles of treatment
Everyone is wondering if the knee hurts, what to do? Many people, with the appearance of mild pain, discomfort, prefer to endure, because they think 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 and adequate therapy, these pathologies can lead to serious consequences.
If the knees hurt, treatment involves treating the pathology that caused the pain. Based on the results of diagnostic studies, the doctor prescribes the appropriate therapy 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 the cartilage tissue, various chondroprotectors or corticosteroid drugs.
For reference! It is possible to perform a puncture, both for diagnosis and for treatment, for example in the case of Becker's cyst.
Sometimes, with advanced pathology, surgical treatment is indicated, which is also different. In most cases, they resort to arthroscopic operations: to remove the joint body or resect the affected tissue area. In addition, if another therapy is ineffective, knee arthroplasty is used, that is, the replacement of the joint elements or the entire joint with an artificial implant. Therefore, the answer to the question "what to do if the knee hurts" is an immediate visit to the doctor.