People of all ages and different lifestyles can complain of knee pain when walking, although this symptom most commonly occurs in the elderly and professional athletes. Causes of knee pain include minor injuries and serious illness. When moving, healthy people, as a rule, do not feel painful sensations; their appearance may be caused by daily wear and tear of the joints, excessive physical exertion, or injury. In this case, the appearance of discomfort and impaired mobility can be felt during sports activities, recreation, doing household chores or work tasks.
Knee pain: causes
Knee pain can occur if you have the following conditions:
- knee arthrosis (gonarthrosis);
- meniscus damage (meniscopathy);
- arthritis (inflammation of the joints);
- hip arthrosis (coxarthrosis);
- knee joint disorders;
- inflammation of the knee tendon (periarthritis of the "crow's foot" sac).
Pain in the knee joint with gonarthrosis
Gonarthrosis accounts for 30 to 40% of cases of knee joint pain. Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is most commonly diagnosed in people aged 40-45 years. The pathological process can develop in one or both knee joints. At the beginning, the intensity of the pain is mild, the appearance of discomfort is noticed only after a long walk. As the disease progresses, severe pains are noticed in the knee joint, which disturb the man in walking, even at short distances.
It becomes difficult for the patient to get up from the chair, get up from the knees, get down and climb the stairs. A sore knee does not bother at rest, at night, except in cases of overloading the knee the day before.
In the following stages of gonarthrosis, the pain is supplemented by crunching of the knee (during walking) and deformity of the joint. This symptomatology becomes more pronounced every year.
Knee joint pain with meniscopathy
Meniscopathy (damage to the meniscus), together with gonarthrosis, is also a common cause of knee pain (up to 40% of cases).
Menisci of the knee can be damaged at any age, and are equally common in women and men. Damage to one knee joint is mainly observed.
Meniscopathy can be attributed to injuries, but it can often occur in a seemingly flat place. A characteristic feature of a knee meniscus injury, unlike gonarthrosis, is a rapid and often quite unexpected development caused by unsuccessful movements while running, walking, jumping, skiing, etc.
The injury is accompanied by cracking of the knee, a feeling of acute pain in the knee joint, the intensity of which is so high that the victim cannot move. After a slight weakening of the acute pain, which usually occurs after 10-15 minutes, the patient's ability to move is restored. However, the next day or for the day, the pain syndrome intensifies again, the knee is very swollen. At this stage, the clinical picture of meniscopathy is supplemented by a characteristic feature of the pinched meniscus - a puncture of the knee while walking, a feeling of "nail" in the knee or a possible fracture of the knee while walking.
The duration of the acute period of the disease is usually two to three weeks, after which the patient is relieved. In the absence of appropriate therapy, the disease becomes chronic. Painful sensations subside, and then all the circumstances (strong loads, squats, unsuccessful sudden movements) provoke their recurrence.
Meniscopathy, in contrast to gonarthrosis, is extremely rarely accompanied by deformation of the knee joint bones, which can occur only with the development of knee arthrosis associated with meniscus damage.
Knee pain with arthritis
Knee pain in 5-10% of cases is associated with arthritis. This disease is characteristic of people of any age, but most often begins to develop at a young age. The inflammatory process in arthritis can be found in one or both knees.
Defeat of the knee joints can be caused not only by arthrosis and meniscopathy, but also by one of the types of arthritis, and that is rheumatoid, reactive, psoriatic. In addition, diseases such as gout, ankylosing spondylitis, and rheumatoid arthritis are also called arthritis.
Arctic inflammation of the knee joint is characterized by a rapid onset (in 1-3 days), which is accompanied by obvious swelling and swelling of the knee, as well as increased pain in the affected joint at night. The severity of pain in arthritis can be stronger at rest than during movement, which distinguishes the disease from arthrosis and meniscopathy, which have a similar symptom - pain in the knee joint. Treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis can reduce pain, relieve inflammation.
Pain in the knee joint with coxarthrosis
Coxarthrosis (arthrosis of the hip joint) affects 3 to 7% of people who visit a doctor for pain in the knee joint. The disease is manifested in the fact that, despite the preservation of knee mobility, the absence of difficulties with its painless flexion and extension, the patient with coxarthrosis finds it difficult to spread his legs to the sides, rotate his legs "from the hips. "
Knee joint pain with poor circulation
Vascular pain in the knee associated with impaired circulation accounts for 5 to 10% of visits to the doctor due to knee problems.
Deterioration of blood circulation in the knee joints, accompanied by pain, is known to many. As a rule, these unpleasant sensations first appear in adolescence, because the rate of vascular development in the period of active growth of the child is sometimes much lower than the rate of bone growth.
In the event that vascular pain occurs once, you need to be prepared that it will occur throughout your life. However, the degree of their intensity usually decreases after 19-20 years.
Pain in vascular disorders is usually symmetrical, ie. their expression on the left and right knee is the same. The onset of pain syndrome is associated with changes in weather, changes in air temperature, colds, and physical exertion. To treat such pain, warming ointments, massages, self-massage (strong rubbing of the knee), as well as vasodilators are used. No special treatment is needed for these conditions.
Knee pain due to inflammation of the knee tendons
Approximately 10-15% of knee pain is associated with inflammation of the knee tendon (periarthritis of the crow's feet). Most often, this pathology occurs in the female half, mostly after 40 years. Pain syndrome occurs when walking down stairs and carrying weights. Calm walking on a flat surface with inflammation of the knee joints is extremely rarely accompanied by the appearance of pain.
Pain caused by periarthritis does not spread to the entire knee, but is localized only on the inner surfaces of the knee, 3-5 cm below the point of contact of the knee when connected. Periarthritis of the "goose sac", unlike arthritis, arthrosis and meniscopathy, is not accompanied by limited mobility of the knee joint. Knee flexion and extension are not disturbed, there are no deformities and swelling of the knee.
Knee pain
The main goals of treatment of knee joint pain, set by the doctors of the therapeutic clinic, are the following:
- eliminate swelling;
- free the patient from unpleasant sensations;
- restore knee joint function;
- prevent new attacks.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics are used to relieve pain. It is effective to use ointments to warm up and interfere, as well as to strengthen them.
In the remission phase, patients are prescribed the use of physiotherapeutic techniques, massages and therapeutic exercises.
In the absence of the effectiveness of conservative therapy, experts, taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages, consider the purposefulness of surgical treatment.
In addition, there are a number of traditional medicines that help reduce pain, but their use must first be discussed with specialists who monitor the course of treatment aimed at eliminating pain in the knee joint. The method of treatment of this pathology should be decided only by an experienced, highly qualified doctor who is familiar with the patient's research results, individual characteristics of his body and many other important nuances.