Women suffer from arthrosis of the knee joints somewhat more often than men. Arthrosis usually develops after forty years, though there are sometimes cases of "new" gonartrosis - after injuries or among professional athletes.
The most severe arthrosis of the knee joints is the most difficult in full women, as well as in those that have a strong varicose veins in the legs.
The disease begins gradually, with minor knee pain when walking. The most difficult thing for patients is given to the origin or climbing of the stairs. Even pain often occurs when a person has to get out of a sitting position (from a chair or from a bed) - the first steps are usually the most painful. Then, if you change, knee pain is slightly reduced. But with long walking and after it, the pain comes back again.
At rest, sitting and lying, the pain usually passes. Initial pain for knee joint arthrosis does not occur "in a second", that is, they do not appear immediately, within a day. The period of intense pain in the gonarthrosis almost necessarily precedes a period of multi -month or even perennial pain that occurs exclusively with long walking, loading, walking up the stairs or rising from the chair.
If the pain arises significantly, within a day or, moreover, in a second, but before there was no knee pain, then this usually indicates any other illness or damage. For example, to clap the meniscus, violation of the synovial shell of the knot or the stroke between the knee of the cartilage part (the body's cartilage unfolding).
However, with gonartrosis, such problems can also occur, and then they will complicate the flow of arthrosis, will add sharp pain. And then knee arthritis will need to be treated, taking into account the above complications. But initially the diagnosis of "knee joint arthrosis" is confirmed precisely by the gradual development of the symptoms of pain.
The first stage of knee joint arthrosis
Despite occasionally, intense pain, at the beginning, in the first stage of gonartrosis, the knee bones maintain their original shape and are almost not deformed. But the union itself may seem a little swollen.
Such a change in the form of union at the beginning may be associated with a synovitis (synovitis is an accumulation in the knee of a pathological fluid).
If the fluids in the fusion are "earned" too much, it also spreads to the back of the knee, in the popliteal fossa area. Such an accumulation of fluid is called a cyst of baker. The term "cyst of baker" often scares patients, as the name leads many people to the idea that we are talking about the oncological process. However, this situation has nothing to do with oncology and tumors. Baker cyst is just a term which means accumulation of knee fluid. Sometimes, when you accumulate too much of this liquid, it breaks down below the knee and down - over the back of the lower leg. But even in this case, nothing terrible does not happen: Baker cyst is usually easily reduced under the influence of anti -inflammatory drugs or the introduction of hormone drugs into the knee. Therefore, the copper cyst should be treated. But in no case does you need to operate it!
The second stage of arthrosis of the knee joint
In the second phase of gonarthrosis, a few months later from the onset of the disease, knee pain becomes clearly stronger. The pain already occurs from the minimum load or immediately after it.
That is, the pain is now caused by almost any movement in the affected knee. But especially the knee hurts after a long load, a long walk, wearing small weights.
After a fairly long break, the pain usually passes completely, but during the next movement it immediately occurs again.
About the same time, a crisis in the knee joint during movements is added to the pain. It differs significantly in volume from barely audible clicks, occasionally accompanying individual movements of healthy joints.
As the disease progresses, such a stalemate, first expressed, becomes more obedient and special.
I want to emphasize once again: there is no need to confuse a rough arthritis crisis in the joint, almost always accompanied by pain, with a harmless crisis of the joints that occur in some healthy people and not associated with pain.
Soft painless joint creation can only be a consequence of weak ligamentous apparatus, or a consequence of excessive joint mobility or some other individual characteristics in the structure of the joints in a particular person. Typically, such a mild crisis does not threaten anything, no negative consequences and does not increase the risk of articular diseases in the future. Knee joint arthritis, arthritis, meniscus damage, etc.
In parallel with the strengthening of pain and the appearance of the crystal, in the second phase of gonartrosis, the ability to normally bend the leg to the knee decreases. When you try to bend the knee "at the stop", there is a sharp pain in the joints, and most often complete curvature of the knee becomes simply impossible. Sometimes the knee is bent only at a corner of 90 degrees, and then goes with difficulty and through pain.
At the same stage of the disease, it becomes evident that the joint is deformed - first of all, this applies to bone deformities, changes in the shape of the joint bone (when you feel knee, you may notice that its bones have changed their shape, became as if wider and "rich").
Moreover, the change in the form of union is exacerbated by accumulation in the union of pathological fluid (synovitis). Synovitis at this stage of gonarthrosis occurs much more often and sometimes expressed much more than at the beginning of the disease, in its first stage.
Third phase of knee joint arthrosis
In the third stage of gonartrosis, knee pain in the knee intensifies further. Now the knee hurts not only when moving and walking. Pain begins to disturb a person even at rest. It is difficult for the patient to find a suitable position in the bed, adjust a touch knee so as not to damage. And yet, finding the right position, a person can usually fall asleep. Although, if the destruction of the joint is combined with circulatory disorders, then the joints begin to "turn" in the middle of the night, usually when changing the weather, or, as patients themselves, "rain".
The motility of the knee joint at this time decreases to a minimum. The knee is already completely impossible to bend stronger than 90 degrees. And sometimes the knee almost doesn't bend at all. In addition, the possibility often disappears to the end, that is, direct your foot. In this case, a sick person walks slightly bent all the time.
Compared to the second phase, in the third phase of the gonartrosis of the joint, the joint is even more deformed, and in some cases the deformation of the "variable" or "valgus" legs acquire an O or X-shaped shape in X. As a result, people with similar leg deformities often become unstable.