Gonarthrosis or arthrosis of the knee joint is a disease that cannot be completely cured.
However, modern medicine has learned to stop the pathological destruction of the tissues of the human body. Using effective treatments, doctors:
- relieve their patients of pain;
- eliminate discomfort while driving;
- slow down the progression of the disease;
- significantly improve the quality of life of the person who applied to them.
What is knee arthrosis?
The disease has several names for knee damage. It is often referred to as gonarthrosis, osteoarthritis deformans (DOA) and even arthritis, although the latter is more commonly used for rheumatoid pathologies.
The disease is progressive in nature, therefore, without professional help, it often gives serious complications. As a result of its course, the cartilage tissue that lines the surface layer of the joint is affected. This becomes the reason for the dysfunction of the capsule and the appearance of painful sensations.
According to one theory, arthrosis of the knee arises from an increase in life expectancy. According to this theory, a person over the age of 50 does not yet feel old and continues to be active at the same level. However, his joints fail, as they exhaust the resource given by nature.
Why does gonarthrosis develop?
Limited mobility makes it difficult to walk, run and move freely. Unaccustomed to this, a person perceives such restrictions as punishment. With exacerbation of pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, even simple steps are difficult. After 50 years, the disease develops in every second person. The most common causes of the anomaly besides age-related disorders:
- leg fractures affecting the knee joint area;
- dislocation of the knee, failure or damage to the menisci;
- inflammation of the joint capsules (rheumatoid pathologies, gout, ankylosing spondylitis and others);
- failure of metabolic processes, joint weakness of a congenital nature;
- hereditary factor, genetic predisposition.
Gonarthrosis is equally likely to develop in an overweight elderly woman and a young man injured during exercise.
Symptoms of pathology
The disease does not appear suddenly. Negative symptoms are mild at first and get worse over time. Almost imperceptible knee pain while walking becomes more intense with increased activity, climbing stairs. It seems that this is manifested by the discomfort that has arisen due to long immobility.
The body seems to be numb, and at the very beginning of the movements it tries to independently adapt to the new load. As soon as a person "disperses", the unpleasant symptoms of the disease disappear, and the knee regains normal mobility. It is at this time that you need to see a doctor to undergo an examination. By ignoring the diagnosis, a person is putting himself in great danger.
Gradually, the symptoms become more pronounced:
- the pain becomes continuous, now it does not go away during physical exertion;
- range of motion becomes scarce, the knee is limited, swells and increases in size.
Doctors say that going to the clinic in the early stages opens up good prospects for treatment. The disease can be stopped without using expensive methods and drugs. With each new day of inactivity, the risks grow. At stage III, it becomes almost impossible to neutralize serious symptoms.
Diagnosis of gonarthrosis
During the initial appointment, the specialist listens to the patient's complaints, clarifies the symptoms, examines the knee and directs the patient to an x-ray. At the first stages of changes, external signs are absent, at stages II and III:
- the contours of the bones become coarser;
- joint capsules undergo deformational changes;
- the axis of the limb is bent, and movement becomes limited.
On palpation, a crunch is often heard, it is worth shifting the patella in the transverse direction. The pain becomes more pronounced. Thanks to X-ray examination, you can clarify the diagnosis. Images make it possible to assess the degree of changes, to differentiate disturbances from other pathologies.
Knee arthrosis treatment
When gonarthrosis is detected, an integrated approach to treatment should be used. Only in this case is a sustainable improvement possible. Here, an individual therapy plan is drawn up for each patient, where traditional approaches and modern author's techniques are combined. When drawing up a treatment plan for arthrosis of the knee, the patient's age, history, lifestyle and history of correction of disorders of the musculoskeletal system in the past are taken into account.
Drug therapy
Preparations for the treatment of arthrosis of the knee joint are selected from the following groups:
- anti-inflammatory drugs;
- pain medications;
- chondroprotective formulas based on hyaluronic acid (the purpose of which is to restore the integrity of the cartilage fibers in the damaged joint capsule).
Pharmaceutical companies produce a wide variety of drugs to treat this disease. Among them are creams, ointments, gel formulations, tablets, solutions for injections. Medicines are important when you need to quickly relieve acute pain, reduce the effects of the inflammatory process. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids, and vasodilators are especially popular.
Articular manual therapy
Soft hand techniques allow you to delicately and physiologically restore the natural anatomical relationships between internal structures. Since arthrosis occurs due to overloading of the knee, displacement and abrasion of cartilage, as well as improper projection of the position of the bones in relation to each other, it is possible to correct the situation with the help of manual therapy.
The doctor separates the misplaced structures in order to bring them together in the correct ratio. At the same time, the muscular and ligamentous corset is strengthened. The founder of the clinic uses the experience of Western colleagues and author's methods in his work. This allows you to achieve a stable result that lasts for a long time.
Shockwave therapy
UHT is a method that has successfully proven itself in the Russian practice of treating gonarthrosis. The impact on the affected area is carried out through special equipment that generates acoustic signals with a frequency of impulses of 2-4 thousand per session. Thanks to the hardware technique, it is possible to activate blood circulation, enhance metabolism in tissues, and stimulate the regeneration of bone and cartilage fibers.
Di-Tazin therapy
Author's technique based on a combination of photosensitization, multicomponent electrophoresis and gentle manual techniques. It is aimed at restoring the damaged joint, relieving pain and discomfort. It is supplemented with kinesiological procedures, taping, physiotherapy, blockade injections, the introduction of chondroprotectors and drugs based on hyaluronic acid into the joint. All this in a complex allows you to stop the destruction of the knee joint, remove pain, and stimulate tissue renewal.
Plasmolifting
Safe and painless procedure. The doctor takes venous blood from the patient, processes it in a special centrifuge, and after separating the plasma, injects it into the damaged joint using a regular needle. It is recommended to go through the sessions in courses to consolidate the result. Plasmolifting helps relieve pain and inflammation, restore the mobility of the joint capsule.
Taping
Applying tape (self-adhesive tape) in a specially selected direction in accordance with the location of the fibers of the damaged part. In case of disease, a wide teip is used. It relieves pain by relieving muscle tension. In case of puffiness, a special lymph tape is used, the rays of which are directed towards the nearest lymph nodes.
Other treatments
In the clinic, specialists select profile orthopedic insoles for patients with arthrosis of the knee joint. They help to correct functional changes, relieve pain and evenly distribute the load on the legs. Strengthening the ligamentous apparatus through exercise therapy at home allows you to stabilize the position of the knee.