Osteoarthritis of the knee(gonarthrosis, osteoarthritis of the knee joint, deforming osteoarthritis of the knee joint) is a degenerative disease of the knee joint, characterized by the destruction of the cartilage of the joint surfaces, joint deformation and impairment of its function.
Initial changes in knee joint osteoarthritis are believed to form in cartilage tissue at the molecular level. Over time, these changes lead to a violation of the physicochemical properties of cartilage. When examining cartilage preparations, it can be revealed that in some places it begins to become cloudy, thinner, layered and cracked in various directions.
Eventually, the pathological process ends with the complete disappearance of the cartilage to a lesser or greater extent, leading to exposure of the underlying bone. Osteoarthritis of the knee is more common in people over 50.
More often women suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee joint. Knee osteoarthritis can be unilateral and bilateral. The most common forms of osteoarthritis are medial.
Reasons for the development of arthrosis of the knee joint
The exact cause of osteoarthritis is unknown to science, but there are a number of factors that usually contribute to the onset of this disease:
- Previous injuries of the knee joint - increase the risk of developing osteoarthritis;
- Heredity: in some cases in patients with osteoarthritis, a defect in the gene responsible for the development of cartilage tissue is detected, which leads to the fact that these people have an increased predisposition to the development of osteoarthritis, due to the low resistance of the cartilage tissue to be damaged ;
- Body weight gain - according to observations, most often osteoarthritis of the large joints of the lower extremities (knee, arthrosis of the hip joint) develops in patients with weight gain and occurs due to a load excessive on these joints. It can also lead to a more rapid progression of the disease;
- Excessive stress on the joint;
- Intra-articular deposition of crystals - occurs in some diseases associated with metabolic disorders, especially uric acid, etc. Which can lead to the destruction of cartilage.
Knee Osteoarthritis Symptoms
Symptoms of knee joint osteoarthritis are known to develop slowly over a number of years.
The most common symptoms of knee osteoarthritis are:
- Pain in the depths of the knee joint, which appears especially when moving and walking;
- Swelling in the knee
- Morning stiffness in the morning, which passes after a while during movements, patients note that they need to "disperse", after which relief comes and movements in the knee joint improve;
- Crunch (crepitus) in the joint during movement.
Treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee
Currently, it is not possible to completely cure osteoarthritis of the knee joint. However, starting treatment in the early stages of the disease, it is possible to stop the progression of the destruction of the cartilage tissue of the joint for a long time.
The treatment center performs a modern treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint based on a comprehensive multilateral approach and includes:
- The use of knee pads to relieve the medial parts of the joint;
- Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which allows you to stop inflammation of the joint and reduce pain;
- Decrease in body weight gain - reliably leads to a slowing of the progression of arthrosis;
- Physiotherapy exercises, excluding axial loads on the joint, allow you to restore muscle tone, prevent its wasting and restore range of motion in the joint;
- Reception of small doses of muscle relaxants - leads to a decrease in spasm of the periarticular muscles, which also significantly reduces the pain syndrome;
- Physiotherapy courses;
- Introduction of hyaluronic acid preparations into the joint - which is a prosthesis of the synovial fluid;
- Taking drugs of the chondroprotective group;
- Taking medications that improve blood rheology and blood supply to the bones;
- In some cases, knee arthroscopy;
- Knee replacement - knee arthroplasty if conservative treatment is ineffective.
The operation for osteoarthritis of the knee joint is performed free of charge inside the VMP.
In case of medical indications and the presence of quotas in the referral, our center carries out interventions at the expense of the funds allocated under the program for the provision of high-tech medical care (HMP).
Details on the high-tech medical treatment program.
Treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee with the PRP method
Together with the aforementioned classical methods of conservative treatment of deforming osteoarthritis of the knee joint, our clinic has a unique opportunity to receive treatment using a unique technique based on the introduction into the affected joint of a biologically active substance isolated from the own patient autologous blood-enriched platelet plasma (PRP-therapy), which allows you to influence the key link in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis - regeneration - restoration of cartilage tissue.
Following the treatment with the use of enriched autologous platelet plasma, the patient does not use "chemical" drugs, does not need a daily visit to a physiotherapist, etc. Therefore, there is no effect of drugs on the body as a whole, the load on such important organs as the liver and kidneys is reduced.