Gonarthrosis or, as it is sometimes incorrectly called, gonarthrosis (arthrosis of the knee joint) is a chronic disease with an insidious progressive course, accompanied by degenerative changes in the cartilage tissue of the joint.
As the disease progresses, a person can completely lose the ability to move independently. Timely diagnosis and treatment of gonarthrosis makes it possible 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 to be affected by this disease than men. In this article we will consider the clinical signs and tactics for treating gonarthrosis.
The main clinical signs of gonarthrosis
As we have already said, osteoarthritis of the knee has an insidious progressive course. So, in the initial stages of a sick person practically nothing bothers, but over time the symptoms intensify.
The primary clinical symptom is a slight pain in the knee that occurs with prolonged or heavy physical exertion. The patient shows a certain feeling of stiffness in the joint, the appearance of an "incipient" pain syndrome (appearing at the beginning of the movement and passing after the "scattered" person).
With this disease there are no external changes in the knee. Sometimes people notice swelling.
As the disease progresses, the pain becomes more intense. The pain syndrome occurs even with minor physical activity and becomes more pronounced with prolonged loads on the knee. The pain subsides with rest and then returns with resumption of movement.
In the future, the pain syndrome becomes constant, both during exercise and at rest. Movements in the joint are restricted, when the knee is bent a coarse crunch is heard. With pronounced pathological changes, the knee is deformed, which further limits movement.
How is osteoarthritis of the knee treated?
Treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint consists of both non-drug and drug methods, if necessary, surgical intervention.
Patients with this disease are recommended to avoid loads on the knee and relieve it as much as possible with the help of various orthopedic devices, sticks. The most important point is weight loss. In 2017, scientists from the Medical University published a paper stating that obesity increases the likelihood of developing gonarthrosis by 4-10 times and it occurs in every third patient.
In addition, a sick person is prescribed special therapeutic exercises, physiotherapeutic procedures, for example, UHF therapy.
With regard to drug treatment, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be recommended for pain relief. With their ineffectiveness, intra-articular injections of glucocorticosteroids are carried out. Also, the treatment plan is supplemented with chondroprotectors, hyaluronic acid injections.
Note that any drug should only be used as directed by a doctor.
In the later stages of the disease, the main method of treatment is surgical intervention, during which articular surfaces are replaced with artificial implants.