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 sensitive to injuries, especially in overweight people, it is exposed to large daily loads. Also, the appearance of a symptom is possible during intensive 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 symptomatic manifestation of many diseases of the knee joint. What causes knee pain? Diagnostic measures are necessary to accurately determine the cause in a particular situation. Pain can be the result of damage to the elements:
- garden equipment;
- tendon formations;
- damage to the cartilage lining.
For various diseases of the knee, in addition to pain, special manifestations will be characteristic, determined in laboratory studies, instrumental and others.
Arthritis
If the knees hurt after a long rest or heavy loads, this is arthritis. This pathology of the knee joint is found in about 5-15% of patients who consult a doctor about pain in the joint area.
Fact! Arthritis is a disease that occurs in all age groups of the population, but young people are more susceptible to this disease.
A characteristic symptom of most arthritis is acute pain in the knee, that is, acute onset - within 1-2 days.
Arthritis is an inflammatory process, so acute pain in the knee joint is accompanied by such symptoms:
- edema;
- swelling;
- hyperemia;
- severe pain that worsens at night.
With arthrosis and damage to the cartilage of the meniscus, the pain manifests itself or is intensified by the motor load on the knee joint, which means that, unlike arthritis, the pain will be relieved if there is no load on the knee. The pain syndrome with arthritis has 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 several joints at once, except for the knee.
arthrosis
Another very common knee disease accompanied by severe pain. Pathology is detected in 35-40% of people who come with knee pain, as a rule, this age category is over 40 years old, both the left knee and the right knee are often 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 - a month. Unlike arthritis, the knee hurts only when you put a load on it:
- First, a person feels pain after a long walk.
- Over time, walking even short distances causes 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 open your knees with a load.
- The pain syndrome disappears if you rest and immobilize the joint.
Over time, without proper treatment, the symptoms become very severe:
- the joint is deformed;
- there is a cracking sound when walking or stretching the knee.
- the pain intensifies.
The pathogenesis is related to the destruction of the structure, the degeneration of the cartilaginous lining of the joint cavity, which leads to the deformation of the joint. Primary arthrosis occurs as a result of age-related natural wear of cartilage, secondary - as a result of injuries or a number of other reasons. Such causes can be infectious arthritis, tumor lesions of bone or cartilage tissue, as a result of which this disease can appear in people of different age categories.
Meniscopathies
They are also a common cause of joint pain.
For reference! About 25-35% of patients seeking help for knee pain 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. During active movements, the meniscus is damaged:
- At the moment of injury, a characteristic click is heard, after which the knee may hurt sharply.
- Then a crisis or crepitus in the knee.
- After that, a sharp pain is felt, which intensifies.
- A person in this condition cannot move the knee joint at all.
Pain may decrease after some time and meniscopathy becomes chronic. However, without proper treatment, edema develops, the joints swell and the movements in it can be blocked, which is accompanied by severe pain and can lead to the development of arthrosis. Risk group:
- people suffering from gout or joint arthritis;
- diabetic patients;
- people with weak ligaments or who are overweight.
The disease is diagnosed using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and is treated conservatively or surgically, depending on the severity.
Tendinitis
Tendonitis is an inflammatory process in the tissues of muscle tendons, at the place of their attachment. This disease mostly affects active children and teenagers, athletes:
- cyclists;
- basketball players;
- volleyball players;
- athletes.
The disease exists in two forms:
- Tenosynovitis is an inflammation of the tendon membrane.
- Tendobursitis is an injury to the tendon bag.
The cause of this phenomenon is not only an injury related to active movement, but also such diseases can be:
- gout;
- arthritis;
- immunodeficiency states;
- infectious diseases;
- excessive physical activity;
- muscle imbalance of joint acting forces.
With tendonitis, the knees hurt paroxysmally, that is, the pain increases with a 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 different ways, sometimes it can be detected by laboratory methods, for example, if 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 early stages of the disease, conservative therapy helps, which involves immobilizing the joint with plaster and limiting motor activity. Various drugs are prescribed:
- tissue repair agents;
- 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 articular bags characterized by an inflammatory process and the presence of exudative fluid.
For reference! The causes of bursitis are constant, excessive stress on the joint.
If we talk about pathologies of an infectious nature, the following factors can cause:
- skin damage in the knee area;
- open wound injuries;
- 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, bursitis will be accompanied by symptoms:
- pain syndrome;
- noticeable changes in the shape of the joint;
- 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 pathology:
- prepatellar;
- suprapatellar;
- infrapatellar bursitis.
This pathology, as a rule, is quite easily diagnosed and treated, except in cases of chronic and difficult-to-treat elderly patients.
Baker's cyst
Another pathological phenomenon of the knee joint brings with it a lot of pain and discomfort. A cyst is also called a popliteal hernia, a protrusion in the popliteal fossa. Normally, between the tendons, the gastrocnemius and semimembranosus muscles, on the back surface of the knee, there is an intertendon pouch. As a result of the following factors, a pathological effusion that penetrates the intertendon bag occurs in the joint space:
- trauma;
- dystrophic changes;
- inflammatory processes.
As a result, the bag becomes enlarged, noticeable, and is called a Baker's cyst. In the initial stages of development, it can be invisible, it does not cause obvious discomfort, that is, it is asymptomatic. Later, due to the increase in size, the knee becomes very painful, because the cyst begins to squeeze the nerves and blood vessels, and the mobility of the joint is also impaired. Flexion movements become difficult and are accompanied by severe pain.
Breakdown of osteochondrosis
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 necrosis and erosion of a small area of the cartilaginous lining, resulting in the formation of a free-lying body in the joint cavity, which causes many problems.
It manifests itself symptomatically as follows:
- mild pain and discomfort;
- pain intensifies when moving;
- swelling may develop.
A detached part of the cartilage tissue, once in the articular space, can interfere with the movement that patients complain about, and you can hear characteristic clicks or creaking 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 often consider joint damage as the reason for the development of this disease, but sometimes there are patients who have not suffered any damage before. Diagnosis is based on computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray examination methods.
Gout disease
Gout or gouty arthritis of the knee joint is caused by a disturbed metabolism, which leads to the excessive formation and deposition of uric acid salts called urates. They accumulate both in the joint cavity itself and around the cartilage and tendon and cause inflammation.
Along with the disease, there is severe pain, 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 impossibility of performing the 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 treatment are used.
The causes of pain in the knee 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 after the diagnosis.
General principles of treatment
What should anyone do if their knee hurts? With the appearance of mild pain, discomfort, many people 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, adequate therapy, these pathologies can lead to serious consequences.
If the knees hurt, the treatment includes the therapy of the pathology causing the pain. Based on the results of diagnostic studies, the doctor prescribes 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 events, anti-inflammatory substances are prescribed, and if there are problems with cartilage tissue, various chondroprotectors or corticosteroid drugs.
For reference! It is possible to make a puncture for both diagnosis and 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 articular body or to resect the affected tissue area. Also, if other therapy is ineffective, knee arthroplasty is used, that is, 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 to visit the doctor immediately.