Women suffer from arthrosis of the knee joints somewhat more often than men. Arthrosis develops usually after forty years, although sometimes there are cases of "young" gonartrosis - after injuries or among professional athletes.
The heavier arthrosis of the knee joints is the hardest in full women, as well as in those who have a strong varicose veins on the legs.
The disease begins gradually, with minor pain in the knee when walking. The most difficult thing for patients is given to the descent or climbing the stairs. Even pain often occurs when a person needs 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 diverge, the pains in the knees are slightly reduced. But with long walking and after it, the pains return again.
At rest, sitting and lying, the pain usually pass. The initial pain for arthrosis of the knee joints does not occur "in a second", that is, they do not appear immediately, in one day. The period of intense pain in gonarthrosis is almost necessarily preceded by a period of multi -month or even perennial non -legged pains that occur exclusively with long walking, loading, walking up the stairs or getting up from the chair.
If the pain arose sharply, in one day or, moreover, in one second, but before there were no pain in the knee, then this usually indicates some other disease or damage. For example, to pinch the meniscus, infringement of the synovial shell of the joint or the hit between the cartilage of the knee of the piece of cartilage (Cartilage Excutit of the body).
However, with gonarthrosis, such troubles can also occur, and then they will complicate the course of arthrosis, add sharp pain. And then the knee arthrosis will have to be treated, taking into account the above complications. But initially the diagnosis of "arthrosis of the knee joint" is confirmed precisely by the gradual development of pain symptoms.
The first stage of arthrosis of the knee joint
Despite at times, intensive pain, at first, at the first stage of gonarthrosis, the knee bones retain their original shape and are almost not deformed. But the joint itself can look a little swollen.
Such a change in the shape of the joint at first can be associated with a synovitis (synovitis is an accumulation in the knee of a pathological fluid).
If the fluids in the joint are "gained" too much, it spreads even to the back of the knee, to the area of the popliteal fossa. Such an accumulation of liquid is called Baker's cyst. The term "Baker's cyst" often scares patients, since the name leads many people to the idea that we are talking about the oncological process. However, this state has nothing to do with oncology and tumors. Baker's cyst is just a term meaning fluid accumulation in the knee. Sometimes, when accumulating too much of this liquid, it breaks under the knee and below - onto the back of the lower leg. But even in this case, nothing terrible happens: Baker's cyst is usually easily reduced under the influence of anti -inflammatory drugs or the introduction of hormonal drugs into the knee. Accordingly, Baker's cyst needs to be treated. But in no case do not need to operate it!
The second stage of arthrosis of the knee joint
In the second stage of gonarthrosis, a few months later from the onset of the disease, the knee pain becomes clearly stronger. Pain occurs already 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, long walk, wearing even small weights.
After a fairly long rest, the pain usually passes completely, but during the next movement it immediately occurs again.
Around the same time, a crunch 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 crunch, first expressed weakly, becomes more audible and distinct.
I want to emphasize once again: there is no need to confuse a rough arthritic crunch in the joint, almost always accompanied by pain, with harmless crunch of joints that occur in some healthy people and not accompanied by pain.
The painless soft crunning of the joints can be only a consequence of the weak ligamentous apparatus, or a consequence of excessive mobility of the joints or some other individual characteristics in the structure of the joints in a given person. Typically, such a soft crunch does not threaten anything, has no negative consequences, and does not increase the risk of articular diseases in the future. Arthrosis of the knee joint, arthritis, damage to meniscus, etc.
In parallel to the strengthening of pain and the appearance of cryst, at the second stage of gonartrosis, the ability to normally bend the leg in the knee decreases. When trying to bend the knee "to the stop", there is a sharp pain in the joint, and more often the full bending of the knee becomes simply impossible. Sometimes the knee is bent only to a corner of 90 degrees, and then goes with difficulty and through pain.
At the same stage of the disease, it becomes noticeable that the joint is deformed - first of all, this applies to bone deformations, changes in the shape of the joint bones (when feeling the knee, you can notice that its bones have changed their shape, became as if wider and "rude").
In addition, the change in the shape of the joint is aggravated by the accumulation in the joint of the pathological fluid (synovitis). Synovitis at this stage of gonarthrosis happens much more often and sometimes expressed much more much more than at the beginning of the disease, at its first stage.
The third stage of arthrosis of the knee joint
In the third stage of gonartrosis, the knee pain in the knee is further intensified. Now the knee hurts not only when moving and walking. Pain begins to bother a person even at rest. It is difficult for the patient to find a convenient position in bed, arrange a affected knee so that it does not hurt. 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 "twist" in the middle of the night, usually when changing the weather, or, as patients themselves, "to rain".
The mobility of the knee joint at this time is reduced to a minimum. The knee is already completely impossible to bend stronger than 90 degrees. And sometimes the knee almost does not bend at all. In addition, the opportunity often disappears to the end, that is, straighten the leg. In this case, a sick person walks on slightly bent legs all the time.
Compared to the second stage, at the third stage of gonarthrosis of the joint, the joint is even more deformed, and in some cases "varior" or "valgus" legs deformation develops-the legs acquire an o-shaped or x-shaped shape. As a result, people with similar deformations of the legs often become unstable.