Pain in the knee joint is a very common phenomenon in human life. This can be caused by many factors. As a rule, the main reason is that, due to the anatomical structure, the knee joint is quite vulnerable to injury, subjected to huge daily loads, especially in overweight people. It is also possible for the symptom to appear during intense sports, daily household 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 element.
Knee pain is a symptom of many diseases of the knee joint. What causes knee pain? In a specific case, diagnostic measures are needed to determine the exact cause. Pain can be the result of trauma to the elements:
- apparatus of ligaments;
- formations of tendons;
- Cartilage mucous membrane damage.
For various diseases of the knee, in addition to pain, specific manifestations determined by laboratory studies, instrumental and others will be characteristic.
Arthritis
If your knees hurt after a long rest or a heavy load, this is arthritis. This pathology of the knee joint is detected in about 5-15% of patients who consult a doctor about 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 susceptible to this disease.
A characteristic sign of most arthritis is sharp pain in the knee area, i. e. acute onset - within 1-2 days.
Arthritis is an inflammatory process, so acute pain in the knee joint is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- swelling;
- swelling;
- hyperemia;
- Severe pain that worsens at night.
With arthrosis and damage to the meniscus, the pain is manifested or aggravated by the motor load of the knee joint, that is, the pain will be relieved if there is no load on the knee, unlike arthritis. The pain syndrome in arthritis has a different etiology, and getting rid of it by reducing the load and immobilizing the joint will not work. In addition, arthritis can affect several joints at the same time, except for the knee.
arthrosis
Another very common knee disease accompanied by severe pain. The pathology is found in 35-40% of people who come with knee pain, usually this age group is over 40 years old, often both the left and right knee are affected at the same time. Severe pain may not appear immediately, but the sensations gradually increase over time: for someone one or two weeks, for someone - within a month. Unlike arthritis, your knee only hurts when you put stress 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 finds it very difficult to go up and down the stairs.
- It is difficult to get up from a chair, that is, to remove the knees with a load.
- The pain syndrome disappears if you rest and do not move the joint.
Over time, without proper treatment, the symptoms worsen significantly:
- the joint is deformed;
- There is a cracking sound when walking or extending the knee.
- The pain intensifies.
The pathogenesis is due to the destruction of the structure, the degeneration of the cartilaginous coating of the articular cavity, which leads to the deformation of the joint. Primary or age-related arthrosis occurs as a result of natural wear of cartilage, secondary - as a result of injuries or a number of other reasons. Such causes can be infectious arthritis, cancerous damage to bone or cartilage tissue, as a result of which this disease can be manifested in people of different age categories.
meniscopathies
They are also a common cause of joint pain.
For the sake of the people! Among patients who seek help because they have pain in the knee joint, about 25-35% have menscal injuries of various etiologies.
This pathology is observed in people of any age, in various professional activities and is equally common in men and women. Menisci are damaged during active movements:
- At the moment of injury, a characteristic click is heard, after which it can seriously damage the knee.
- Then a cramp or crepitus in the knee.
- After that, a sharp pain is felt, which gets stronger.
- A person in this condition cannot move the knee joint at all.
After some time, the pain may decrease and meniscopathy may become chronic. But without proper treatment, swelling develops, swelling of the joint and movement 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 using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and treated, depending on the severity, conservatively or surgically.
tendinitis
Tendonitis is an inflammatory process in the tissues of muscle tendons, at the place of their attachment. 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.
- Tendon bursitis is an injury to the tendon sac.
The cause of this phenomenon can be not only injuries related to active movement, but also such diseases:
- gout;
- Arthritis
- immunodeficiency states;
- infectious diseases;
- excessive physical activity;
- Muscle imbalance of the forces acting on the joint.
During tendonitis, the knees hurt paroxysmally, that is, the pain increases when the tendon is loaded, in severe forms or in the late stages of the disease, the inflamed tendon can rupture. The disease is diagnosed in different 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.
Conservative therapy, which involves immobilizing the joint with plaster and limiting motor activity, helps in the initial stages of the disease. 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 tissues and plastic tendon formations is performed.
Knee bursitis
It is a disease of the joint bags, which is characterized by an inflammatory process and the presence of exudative fluid.
For the sake of the people! Causes of bursitis are constant, excessive load on the joint.
If we talk about pathologies of an infectious nature, then the following factors can be the cause:
- skin damage in the knee area;
- open wound injuries;
- various septic conditions;
- the presence of an infection in the blood;
- Excess weight;
- Increased load on the joint.
Also, the pathology is secondary, as a complication of gout disease or arthritis of the knee joint. Like any inflammatory process, bursitis is accompanied by symptoms:
- pain syndrome;
- noticeable changes in the shape of the joint;
- the presence of swelling in the knee area;
- redness;
- Severe difficulty in movement.
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 pathologies:
- prepatellar;
- suprapatellar;
- Infrapatellar bursitis.
This pathology is usually quite easily diagnosed and treated, except for elderly patients, in whom 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 trouble. A cyst, also called a popliteal hernia, is a bulge in the popliteal fossa. Normally, between the tendons, gastrocnemius, and semimembranosus muscles, there is an intertendon pouch on the posterior surface of the knee region. As a result of the following factors, a pathological effusion is formed in the joint cavity, which penetrates into the intertendon bag:
- trauma
- dystrophic changes;
- inflammatory processes.
As a result, the sac grows, becomes noticeable and is called a Baker's cyst. At the initial stage of development, it can be invisible, not cause obvious discomfort, that is, it is asymptomatic. Later, due to the increase in size, the knee hurts a lot, because the cyst starts to compress the nerves and blood vessels, and the mobility of the joint is also disturbed. Flexible movements become difficult and are also accompanied by severe pain.
Osteochondrosis dissection
This disease is also a common cause of knee pain. Normally, the articular surfaces that make up the knee joint are covered with cartilage. This pathology is caused by the fact that a small area of the cartilaginous membrane becomes necrotic and exfoliated, 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;
- Pain intensifies during movement;
- Edema may develop.
A torn fragment of cartilage tissue, once lodged in the joint cavity, can impede movement, which patients complain of and a characteristic clicking or crunching sound can be heard when moving. After exfoliation, a defect remains on the smooth articular surface, which contributes to the traumatization of the joint and will lead to osteoarthritis or other pathologies in the future.
Doctors consider frequent injuries to the joint as the reason for the development of this disease, but sometimes there are patients who do not have previous injuries. Diagnosis is based on computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and radiological examination methods.
Gout disease
Gout of the knee joint or gouty arthritis occurs as a result of a metabolic disorder, which causes uric acid salts, i. e. yearThey accumulate both in the joint cavity itself and around the cartilage and tendons and cause inflammation.
During the disease, there is severe pain in the joint, the knee area becomes red and swollen. If gout becomes chronic, then urate deposits cause a clear deformation 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-ray and uric acid blood analysis. It is difficult to treat, but in the initial stage of development, a special diet and drug treatment 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 my knee hurts after making a diagnosis.
General principles of treatment
Everyone is wondering what to do if your knee hurts? Many people prefer to endure mild pain and discomfort, because they think that it will pass by itself, it should not be done. Your knee joint hurts because it is a manifestation of various pathologies, and in the absence of timely, adequate therapy, these pathologies can cause serious consequences.
If your knees hurt, then treatment includes therapy of 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. It can be the following methods:
- special therapeutic and preventive exercises;
- ointments;
- Compresses.
During inflammatory events, anti-inflammatory substances are prescribed, and in case of cartilage tissue problems, various chondroprotectors or corticosteroid drugs are prescribed.
For the sake of the people! It is possible to perform a puncture both for diagnosis and treatment, for example, in the case of Becker's cyst.
Sometimes, in the case of advanced pathology, surgical treatment is indicated, which is also diverse. In most cases, they resort to arthroscopic operations: to remove the articular body or excision of the affected tissue area. Also, if other therapies are ineffective, knee arthroplasty is used, i. e. replacement of articular elements or the entire joint with an artificial implant. Thus, the answer to the question "what to do if your knee hurts" is an immediate visit to the doctor.