Saturday, March 9, 2013

What is Knee arthritis / osteoarthritis

What is Knee arthritis?
Knee osteoarthritis is a disease that is relatively common. Gradual degradation of the cushioning cartilage in the knee joint allows the bone is exposed and might cause pain upon loading of the joint.

Why does it hurt?
Pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee can be linked to the cartilage that normally protects the bone surface is worn away. In bone retina there are a number of pain fibers that sweetens signals from the knee. When cartilage no longer covers and protects the bone, it can cause inflammation and pain.

In addition to the pain from the bone membrane then inflammatory processes occur in the synovial membrane and cause swelling in the joint. It is also common that there is muscular pain from the muscles around the joint by this disorder.

What treatments can help?
There are a lot of good research showing that treatment with a physiotherapist can help. Man has been able to prove that the cartilage to a certain extent can build up again by proper training. This is something we never thought possible, but recent studies have shown that cartilage partly to build up again. Strength training and training in the pool and bike are important forms of training.

For those who have developed moderate to extensive arthrosis and where no training has helped well enough, injection therapy may be an option. The first step will be tried by local cortisone injection. If this does not sufficiently long lasting effect then injection of hyaluronic acid is a good method to provide pain free for up to 6 months.

On Apex Clinic we have good experience with these injections is a method we recommend to patients who do not experience the effect of different treatment and who does not want to be operated with a prosthesis.

What about surgery?
Operation prosthesis is the most common form of treatment in knee osteoarthritis. Whether uniprotese (prosthesis comprising 50% of the element) or total prosthesis for the joint are removed and replaced with a prosthesis. For younger active patients so often used other methods with either cartilage transplant or stem cell therapy. The surgeons would prefer to postpone replacement surgery as long as dentures do not have eternal life.

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