Gonarthrosis or osteoarthritis of the knee joint is a disease that cannot be completely cured.
However, modern medicine has learned to prevent pathological destruction of human body tissues. Using effective treatments, doctors:
- relieve the pain of your patients;
- eliminate discomfort while driving;
- slow the progression of the disease;
- significantly improve the quality of life of the person who signed them up.
What is knee osteoarthritis?
The disease has several names for knee injuries. It is often referred to as gonarthrosis, deforming osteoarthritis (DOA) and even arthritis, although the latter is most commonly used for rheumatoid pathologies.
The disease is progressive in nature, therefore, without professional help, it usually causes serious complications. As a result of its course, the cartilage tissue that lines the superficial 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, knee arthrosis results from increased life expectancy. According to this theory, a person over 50 does not yet feel old and remains active at the same level. However, their joints fail, as they exhaust the resource provided by nature.
Why does gonarthrosis develop?
Limited mobility makes it difficult to walk, run and move freely. Unaccustomed to this, the person perceives these restrictions as punishment. With the exacerbation of pathologies of the musculoskeletal system, even simple steps are difficult. After 50 years, the disease develops every two people. The most common causes of the anomaly, in addition to age-related disorders:
- leg fractures that affect the knee joint area;
- knee dislocation, 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 just as likely to develop in an overweight elderly woman as in an injured young man during exercise.
Pathology symptoms
The disease does not appear suddenly. The negative symptoms are mild at first and worsen over time. Almost imperceptible knee pain when walking becomes more intense with increasing activity, climbing stairs. It seems that this is manifested by the discomfort that arises due to the long immobility.
The body seems numb and, right at the beginning of the movements, tries to adapt independently to the new load. As soon as a person "disperses", the unpleasant symptoms of the disease disappear and the knee returns to normal mobility. This is when you need to see a doctor for an exam. By ignoring the diagnosis, the person is putting himself in great danger.
Gradually, the symptoms become more pronounced:
- the pain becomes continuous, now it does not cease with physical effort;
- the 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 the use of expensive methods and drugs. With each new day of inactivity, the risks increase. In stage III, it becomes almost impossible to neutralize severe symptoms.
Diagnosis of gonarthrosis
At the initial consultation, the specialist listens to the patient's complaints, clarifies the symptoms, examines the knee and refers the patient to an X-ray. In the early stages of change, external signs are absent, in stages II and III:
- the contours of the bones become more coarse;
- articular capsules undergo deformational changes;
- the axis of the limb is bent and movement is limited.
On palpation, a crack is often heard, it is worth moving the patella in a transverse direction. The pain becomes more pronounced. Thanks to the X-ray examination, you can clarify the diagnosis. The images allow us to assess the degree of changes, differentiate the disorders from other pathologies.
Treatment of knee arthrosis
When gonarthrosis is detected, an integrated approach to treatment must be used. Only in this case is sustainable improvement possible. Here, an individual therapy plan is drawn up for each patient, where the author's traditional approaches and modern techniques are combined. In developing a treatment plan for knee arthrosis, 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 osteoarthritis of the knee joint are selected from the following groups:
- anti-inflammatories;
- 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, injectable solutions. Medications are important when it is necessary to quickly relieve acute pain, reduce the effects of the inflammatory process. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids and vasodilators are especially popular.
Manual joint therapy
Soft hand techniques allow the natural and anatomical relationships between internal structures to be restored delicately and physiologically. As arthrosis occurs due to knee overload, cartilage displacement and abrasion, as well as inadequate projection of the position of the bones in relation to each other, it is possible to correct the situation with the aid of manual therapy.
The doctor separates the displaced structures to bring them together in the correct proportion. At the same time, the muscular and ligament corset is strengthened. The clinic's founder uses the experience of Western colleagues and the author's methods in his work. This allows you to achieve a stable and long-lasting result.
Shockwave therapy
UHT is a method that has been proven successful in the Russian practice of treating gonarthrosis. The impact on the affected area is made through special equipment that generates acoustic signals with a pulse frequency of 2 to 4 thousand pulses per session. Thanks to the hardware technique, it is possible to activate blood circulation, improve tissue metabolism and stimulate the regeneration of bone and cartilage fibers.
Di-Tazin Therapy
Author's technique based on a combination of photosensitization, multicomponent electrophoresis and soft manual techniques. It aims to restore the damaged joint, relieving pain and discomfort. It is complemented with kinesiological procedures, bandages, physiotherapy, block injections, introduction of chondroprotectors and drugs based on hyaluronic acid in the joint. All of 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 draws venous blood from the patient, processes it in a special centrifuge and, after separating the plasma, injects it into the damaged joint with a standard needle. It is recommended to do the sessions in courses to consolidate the result. Plasmolifting helps to relieve pain and inflammation, restoring mobility of the joint capsule.
Recording
Application of adhesive tape (self-adhesive tape) in a specially selected direction according to the location of the fibers of the damaged part. In case of illness, a wide teip is used. Relieves pain by relieving muscle tension. In case of swelling, a special lymphatic tape is used, whose rays are directed to the nearest lymph nodes.
Other treatments
At the clinic, specialists select orthopedic insoles in profile for patients with osteoarthritis of the knee joint. They help to correct functional changes, relieve pain and evenly distribute the load on the legs. The strengthening of the ligament apparatus through therapy with exercises at home allows to stabilize the position of the knee.