Arthritis in the knee

Arthritis in the Knee - Symptoms and Treatment Here are some of the common types of arthritis in the knee.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Inflammation is the main problem caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, rheumatoid arthritis can affect patients of any age.

Post-Traumatic Arthritis An injury may set in post-traumatic arthritis. It usually takes several years after a trauma to have arthritis in the knee.

Osteoarthritis The gradual wearing down of the knee joint cartilage can cause osteoarthritis. The osteoarthritis in the knee eventually takes its toll. Mid-age patients are more prone to developing osteoarthritis in the knee.

Symptoms for Arthritis of the Knee Let see see the different symptoms which point towards arthritis of the knee.

Swelling or Tenderness Inflammation is a common cause of arthritis in the knee. Extra fluid buildup or bone spurs can cause the knee inflammation. Similarly, a healthy and active style also helps avoid knee problems. A person inactive for a long time can also cause tenderness or swelling.

Sometimes, the knee related conditions can result in redness or warmth of the surrounding skin. Such conditions may also result in chronic knee inflammation. Your orthopedic surgery doctor may suggest the use of over-the-counter medicines for improving the conditions.

Knee Locking

One effect of arthritis in the knee is weakening of the surrounding muscles. The destabilizing or weakening of knee joint can lock it. The knee locking can also occur because of the bone weakness. It may result in inability of the patient to move their leg or bend it. The symptoms differ from one patient to other. However, if you come across such symptoms get in touch with your orthopedic doctor.

Sounds from the Knee Knee pain with grinding sounds can point to arthritis as well. If you have trouble bending your knees, you must not take that casually. The popping or cracking sounds from the knee point towards underlying health issues. Sometimes, these sounds represent damage to the cartilage. The roughing of the knee joint surfaces cause popping or grinding sounds.

Sometimes, the rubbing may also mean arthritis in the knee.

Lack of Knee Joint Mobility A damaging impact of knee arthritis is making it difficult to move the joint. The presence of knee arthritis makes even simpler movements a lot more difficult. Individuals who regularly participate in sporting activities are more prone to these kinds of conditions. Arthritis also makes it difficult to take part in performing routine tasks.

Deformity in the Knee An important yet devastating impact is the change in shape of the knee. The sunken knee joint appearance may point to the knee arthritis. Arthritis can poorly impact the muscles around the knee. The deformity in the knee may make them point inward or outward. The noticeability of the appearance also points to the severity of the arthritis in the knee. The deformity extent determines the damage to the arthritis.

Reduced Space Between Joint Sometimes, there is a reduction in space between the knee joint. The reduction in space of the knee joints can result in slowing the knee motion. The arthritis in this case takes toll on the edges of the knee joint. The human body can repair the damage to a certain extent.

However, you need to see your orthopedic doctor in Sioux Falls SD for severe osteoarthritis.

Some Ways to Treat Knee Pain with Surgery Here are some ways of trying to reduce the impact of arthritis in the knee. Before you consider knee replacement surgery, you must try these steps.

Weight Loss Every pound of body weight reduced adds 4 less pounds of pressure on the knees.

Therefore, it is important that you consider losing weight. Consider following your body mass index for a reference. Body mass index reading helps you determine the ideal body weight you must have. Overweight patients are more prone to develop knee arthritis and other obesity related diseases.

Injections to help with osteoarthritis In some cases the orthopedic surgery doctor may suggest the use of injects. The hyaluronan injections offer viscosupplementation to the knee. The orthopedic surgery doctor may suggest injections having supartz, orthovisc, euflexxa, or sodium hyaluronate. Always carefully listen to your bone doctor for deciding the type of injection to use.

The thick fluid in these injections acts as a shock absorber. The fluid improves the gliding of the knee joint and reduces friction. The use of these hyaluronan injections may help reduce changes of osteoarthritis.

Therapy and Exercise In some cases, the patients do not need to have any medication or knee replacement surgery. All they need to do is maintain an active lifestyle. For the knee pain, ask your doctor about specific exercises. These exercises aim to help you overcome the pain and avoid participating in physically exhaustive activities. Make sure you do not participate in activities which may increase the pain and inflammation.

Rest Sometimes, rest can also help overcome the knee arthritis condition. Do not continue if an exercise results in a painful knee condition. The best thing to do is taking 2 to 4 days off the physical activity. Make sure you take rest and do not exercise until you feel better. However, if a few days rest does not improve your knee condition, get in touch with the doctor. Your bone doctor in Sioux Falls Orthopedics SD will evaluate your physical condition and find the best way for you.

Reduce Level of Physical Activity Exercise is integral to a healthy lifestyle. However, patients who suffer from osteoarthritis must not indulge in physically exhaustive activities. They must not take part in physically demanding sports activities. A participation in physically challenging physical activity can seriously damage their knee.

How Knee Exercise Helps Arthritis?

Exercise is not always the best way to relieve arthritis pain in the knee. However, regular exercise may reduce or even eliminate the knee pain. Regular knee exercises can help overcome symptoms relating to swelling or stiffness.

Benefits of Exercise for Arthritis Affected Knee Here are some great advantages of exercise for knee arthritis patients. 

The knee exercises help improve strength of the muscles. The strong knee muscles act as shock absorbers.  Exercise also gives strength to the muscles which are supporting the joint.  A great benefit of knee exercises for arthritis is their impact on mobility. A knee joint exercise helps improve the overall mobility of the patient.

You must not try to do hard exercises. However, it is important to do regular exercises. The regularity of exercises will help improve the overall muscle strength and support for the knee joint.

How to avoid getting hurt?

It is not unusual to feel some level of discomfort at the beginning. You may also feel a bit sore after the exercise. However, if you have severe pain, stiffness, or swelling, you must stop exercising and get in touch with orthopedic doctor.

Some researchers believe that patients with orthopedics must exercise at least half an hour each day. You do not worry about the length of the exercise session. If you cannot do long sessions of knee exercise, you can break them down into smaller sessions. It usually takes

around four to weeks for regularly exercising knee arthritis patients to feel better. Therefore, make exercise a routine of your daily life activities.

Types of Exercises to do for Knee Arthritis You do not necessarily need to try for hard exercises. Something as simple as walking can help improve your knee condition. Make sure to superior quality sturdy shoes. Do not try to increase your pace right away. Gradually start building your pace and distance to continue for the long term.

Orthopedic doctors also suggest walking in shallow pool end or water exercise. These exercises help improve muscle strength. The patient needs to use more force to move in the water. Get in touch with an orthopedic specialist to know if water exercise can help relieve knee pain.

Knee Arthritis Exercises at Home or Work If you do not find time or the energy to go to gym, you can do simple arthritis knee exercises at home. These simple knee exercises will help you improve the joint strength without having the need to buy special equipment. Make sure that you increase the number of repetitions without increasing the speed or intensity.

Once you have done knee exercises, follow up with some gentle stretching exercises.

Let us have a look at some exercises to help relieve arthritis knee pain.

Leg Stretch Sit on the floor while stretching both your legs out. Use your hands around your hips to stabilize yourself. Bend one knee slowly until feel it stretched. However, make sure not to stretch it to a point where it hurts. Keep your leg in the stretched for a few seconds and straighten it. Do the same exercise with the other leg. Repeat this exercise by switching legs for 10 to 12 times. The leg stretch helps improve quadriceps exercise. This exercise will improve strength of the front thigh muscles.

One Leg Dip Stand between two chairs by placing them side by side. Now, hold the chairs with each hand and start putting weight on leg. Lift one leg about 1 foot above the ground in front of you.

Make sure to keep your back straight. Now, use the same process with the other leg. Make sure you do not cross one leg over the other. The purpose of this exercise is to help improve strength of the thigh muscles, knee joint, and buttocks.

Half-Squat Stand by placing your shoulders at a distance. Now, half sit by slowly bending your knees.

Try to hold yourself in this position for a few seconds. Stand up back to your previous position. Try doing 10 repetitions of this exercise. Once you can reach 10 repetitions, try doing three sets with 10 repetitions each. The purpose of this exercise is to improve muscle strength at the back and front of the thighs.

Hamstring Stretch Lie on your back (bed or floor) with the legs bent.Now slowly lift one of your bent legs and try to bring it back to your chest. Try grabbing the knee of the lifted leg with both the hands.

Make sure to hold your leg at this close to chest position for 25 to 50 seconds. Now, slowly lower back the leg back to the floor. Now, do the same stretching exercise for the other leg.

The purpose of this knee exercise is to help you improve strength of your hamstrings. The strong hamstrings help improve knee stability.

After Exercise Routine Try to put a moist heat pack on your knee 20 minutes prior to start of the exercise. The heat will help bring blood up to the surface. The placing of heat pack helps reduce stiffness and gives a soothing impact. If your bone doctor has prescribed pain medicines, try using them 45 minutes for better knee pain management.

Surgical Treatments for Knee Arthritis Let us have a look at the different surgical treatments for arthritis in the knee.

Cartilage Repair and Restoration There are different methods that orthopedic surgery doctors can use to repair cartilage.

Typical methods of cartilage include bone marrow stimulation, autologous chondrocyte implantation, and osteochondral transplantation techniques. These are the different surgical methods to repair the cartilage. Your orthopedic doctor in Sioux Falls SD would decide which procedure suits your needs. These surgical options are more suitable for patients who want to slow down impacts of arthritis.

Knee Arthroscopy Knee arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure. The surgeon will use a small camera to see inside the knee. Smaller incisions minimize damage to the soft tissues. The knee arthroscopy can help smooth the cartilage for bone spurs or irregularities. The doctor may inject a saline solution to clean out materials responsible for swelling and irritation. One of the primary reasons for suggesting knee arthroscopy is low associated risks and minimal recovery time for the patients.

Knee Osteotomy Knee osteotomy is more suitable for younger people. This type of surgery aims to help physically active people enjoy a healthy lifestyle. One of the aims of this surgery is to help overcome knee alignment issues. The knee osteotomy helps overcome problems relating to asymmetrical knee arthritis or unilateral arthritis. The surgeon uses this procedure to remove small edges and an artificial implant or bone material.

Partial Knee Replacement Surgery Partial Knee Replacement or PKR is also referred to as unicompartmental knee replacement. In this PKR, the orthopedic surgery doctor only removes one of the three compartments in the knee This knee replacement surgery may include any of three including medial compartment, lateral compartment, or patellofemoral compartment. The aim of partial knee replacement surgery is to treat arthritically affected compartment in the knee joint.

TKR or Total Knee Replacement Surgery

In case of moderate or severe knee pain, the doctor will advise the patient to undergo total knee replacement. The total knee replacement surgery replaces the knee joint. The bone surgeon will cut the damaged ends of the tibia and femur to shape them for the artificial knee joint. The prosthetic pieces are either made of high-grade plastic or polyethylene.