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 human body tissues. Using effective treatments, doctors:
- relieve your patients of pain;
- eliminate driving discomfort;
- slow disease progression;
- significantly improve the quality of life of the person who applied for them.
What is knee osteoarthritis?
The disease has several names for knee damage. It is often called gonarthrosis, osteoarthritis deformans (DOA), and even arthritis, although the latter is more often used for rheumatoid pathologies.
The disease is progressive in nature, so without professional help it often gives serious complications. As a result of its flow, the cartilaginous tissue that sets the surface layer of the joint is affected. This becomes the cause of capsule dysfunction and the appearance of painful sensations.
According to one theory, osteoarthritis of the knee results from an increase in life expectancy. According to this theory, a person over the age of 50 does not yet feel older and continues to be active at the same level. However, his joints fail because they deplete natural resources.
Why did gonarthrosis develop?
Limited mobility makes it difficult to walk, run and move freely. Unaccustomed to this, a person perceives such restrictions as a punishment. With the worsening of pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, even simple steps are difficult. After 50 years, the disease develops in every other person. The most common causes of the anomaly in addition to age-related disorders:
- leg fractures affecting the knee joint area;
- dislocation of the knee, failure or damage to the meniscus;
- inflammation of the joint capsules (rheumatoid pathology, gout, ankylosing spondylitis and others);
- failure of metabolic processes, joint weakness of congenital nature;
- hereditary factor, genetic predisposition.
Gonarthrosis is equally likely to develop in older overweight women and in young men injured during exercise.
Symptoms of pathology
The disease does not appear suddenly. The negative symptoms are mild at first, but get worse over time. Almost imperceptible pains in the knee while walking become more intense with increased activity, climbing stairs. This seems to be manifested by the discomfort that has arisen due to long immobility.
The body seems to be numb and at the very beginning of the movement it tries to adapt to the new load on its own. As soon as the person "disperses", the unpleasant symptoms of the disease disappear, and the knee returns to normal mobility. At that time, you must visit a doctor to undergo an examination. Ignoring the diagnosis puts a person in great danger.
Gradually the symptoms become more pronounced:
- the pain becomes continuous, now does not pass during physical exertion;
- range of motion becomes scarce, the knee is limited, swells, and increases.
Doctors say going to the clinic in the early stages opens up good prospects for treatment. The disease can be stopped without the use of expensive methods and medications. With each new day of inactivity, the risks increase. In 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 for an X-ray. In the first phases of change the external signs are absent, in phases II and III:
- the contours of the bones become rougher;
- joint capsules undergo deformation changes;
- the axis of the limb is bent and movement becomes restricted.
Palpation is often heard crunching, it is worth moving the patella in the transverse direction. The pain becomes more pronounced. Thanks to the X-ray examination, you can clarify the diagnosis. The images make it possible to assess the degree of change and distinguish the disorder from other pathologies.
Treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee
When gonarthrosis is detected, an integrated approach to treatment should be used. Only in this case is sustainable improvement possible. Here, an individual therapy plan is developed for each patient, combining traditional approaches and modern authorial techniques. When developing a knee osteoarthritis treatment plan, the patient's age, history, lifestyle, and history of correction of past musculoskeletal disorders are taken into account.
Drug therapy
Preparations for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee joint are selected from the following groups:
- anti-inflammatory drugs;
- painkillers;
- chondroprotective formulas based on hyaluronic acid (whose purpose is to restore the integrity of cartilage fibers in the damaged joint capsule).
Pharmaceutical companies produce a wide range of drugs to treat this disease. Among them are creams, ointments, gel formulations, tablets, injection solutions. Medications are important when you need to quickly alleviate acute pain, reduce the effects of the inflammatory process. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids and vasodilators are especially popular.
Joint manual therapy
Soft hand techniques allow you to gently and physiologically restore the natural anatomical relationships between internal structures. Since arthrosis occurs due to overload of the knee, displacement and abrasion of the cartilage, as well as due to incorrect 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 incorrectly placed structures to connect them in the correct ratio. At the same time, the muscular and ligament corset is strengthened. The founder of the clinic uses the experience of Western colleagues and the author's method in his work. This allows you to achieve a stable result that lasts a long time.
Shockwave therapy
UHT is a method that has been successfully proven in the Russian practice of treating gonarthrosis. The impact on the affected area is performed with the help of special equipment that generates sound signals with a pulse frequency of 2-4 thousand per session. Thanks to the hardware technique, it is possible to activate blood circulation, increase 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 intended to repair a damaged joint, relieve pain and discomfort. It is supplemented with kinesiological procedures, gossip, physiotherapy, blockade injections, introduction of chondroprotectors and drugs based on hyaluronic acid into the joint. All this in the complex allows you to stop the destruction of the knee joint, remove the pain and encourage tissue regeneration.
Plasmolifting
Safe and painless procedure. The doctor takes the patient's venous blood, processes it in a special centrifuge and, after separating the plasma, injects it into the damaged joint using a normal needle. It is recommended to attend courses to consolidate the result. Plasmolifting helps relieve pain and inflammation, restores the mobility of the joint capsule.
Gossip
Apply the tape (self-adhesive tape) in a specially selected direction according to the position of the fibers of the damaged part. In case of illness, a wide tape is used. Relieves pain by relieving muscle tension. In case of swelling, a special lymph band is used whose rays are directed towards the nearest lymph nodes.
Other treatments
At the clinic, specialists choose profile orthopedic insoles for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee joint. They help to correct functional changes, relieve pain and evenly distribute the load on the legs. Strengthening the ligament apparatus with exercise therapy at home allows you to stabilize the position of the knee.