Gonarthrosis, or, as it is sometimes erroneously called, gonoarthrosis (arthrosis of the knee joint) is a chronic disease that has a gradually progressive course, accompanied by degenerative changes in the cartilage tissue of the joint.
As the disease progresses, a person may completely lose the ability to move independently. Timely diagnosis and treatment of gonarthrosis allows you to stop the pathological process and save a person from pain.
Most often, this pathology is diagnosed in middle-aged and elderly people, but it can also occur in young people. Women are many times more likely than men to experience this disease. In this article we will consider the clinical signs and tactics of the treatment of gonarthrosis.
The main clinical signs of gonarthrosis
As we have already said, gonarthrosis has a gradually progressive course. Therefore, in the initial stages of a sick person, practically nothing bothers, but over time the symptoms intensify.
The primary clinical sign is mild knee pain that occurs during prolonged or heavy physical exertion. The patient indicates a certain sensation of stiffness in the joint, the appearance of an "initial" pain syndrome (occurring at the beginning of the movement, passing after the "scattered" person).
With this disease, there are no external changes in the knee. Sometimes people notice some swelling.
As the disease progresses, the pain becomes more intense. Pain syndrome appears even with little physical activity, it becomes more pronounced with prolonged load on the knee. During rest, the pain subsides, and then recurs with the resumption of movement.
In the future, the pain syndrome becomes constant, present both during exercise and at rest. The movements of the joint are limited, a rough crunch is heard when the knee is bent. With pronounced pathological changes, the knee is deformed, which further limits movement.
How is osteoarthritis of the knee treated?
Treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint consists of both non-drug and pharmacological methods, surgical intervention if necessary.
Patients with this disease are advised to avoid stress on the knee, try to unload it as much as possible with the help of various orthopedic devices, canes. The most important point is weight loss. In 2017, scientists from the University of Medicine published a paper in which it was found that obesity increases the likelihood of developing gonarthrosis by 4-10 times and occurs in every third patient.
Also, a sick person is prescribed special therapeutic exercises, physiotherapy procedures, for example, UHF therapy.
As for drug treatment, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be recommended to reduce pain. With their ineffectiveness, intra-articular injections of glucocorticosteroids are performed. In addition, the treatment plan is supplemented with chondroprotectors, hyaluronic acid injections.
Note that any drug can only be used as prescribed by a doctor.
In the later stages of the disease, the main method of treatment is surgical intervention, which involves replacing the joint surfaces with artificial implants.