Many people experience knee pain from time to time when bending it.Sometimes there is pain in the knee when walking.This is quite logical, because the knee joints almost always bear a large load.Consequently, they are one of the most vulnerable joints in the human body.But you should still know when and for what reasons knee pain occurs and how you can get rid of it.
Knee pain is a common symptom.It can occur during an illness or under the influence of other traumatic factors that affect the knee both externally and internally.
There are many causes of knee pain: from simple tiredness, to excessively intense sports, from injuries of various types, to diseases that affect one of the many structures of the knee joint.
How does knee pain manifest?
Knee pain can manifest itself in different ways.Firstly, its intensity depends on the type of damage, as well as its severity.Sometimes a person complains that after intense sports training, knee pain begins to appear at night or minor pain appears during physical exertion.However, a little later, the person may begin to be bothered by constant severe pain, both in the knee and in the back.Therefore, it is important to determine the causes of severe pain at the initial stage.Sometimes, to alleviate the pain, it is enough to perform certain procedures.But in case of rupture of ligaments or tendons, as a rule, surgical treatment cannot be avoided.In any case, if a person has very severe knee pain, they should not expect the symptom to disappear on its own.But before deciding what to do and how to treat the pain, you must make a correct diagnosis and inform the doctor about all the characteristics of the pain.First of all, it is necessary to inform if the knee hurts when bending, if the pain or discomfort is bothersome at night, if the pain occurs below the knees, etc.
When does knee pain appear?
The causes of knee pain can be varied.Severe knee pain often develops after ligament damage due to severe injury.However, severe pain in the knee joint can manifest itself in different ways, as the structure of the joint is very complex.There are a total of four ligaments in the knee that connect the femur to the fibula and tibia bones.When one of these ligaments tears, severe pain occurs in the injured area.This happens most often in athletes.In this case, the pain bothers you for a long time when walking, and when running the discomfort remains even longer.
Two more ligaments are crossed inside the knee.These two cruciate ligaments, anterior and posterior, come together at the front of the leg.When the anterior ligament tears, a knee crisis occurs.Then there is sharp and intense pain, after which a tumor develops in the knee area.After suffering such an injury, you must stop immediately, as the damaged areas hurt so much that the knee loses stability.
If the posterior cruciate ligament of a leg joint is torn, the pain is usually less severe.With this injury comes knee pain in the back and a feeling of instability.
Knee pain also occurs when the tendon is damaged.This disease is called tendonitis.In this case, an inflammatory process and irritation of the tendons develop.The reasons for this phenomenon are injuries, especially during sports.Most often, this injury, both to the left and right knees, occurs in skiers, runners and cyclists.This inflammation sometimes develops simultaneously in both knees.The patient feels discomfort and pain in the kneecap or the front of the knee.Most often, discomfort and pain are felt when bending over.In this case, there is no need to resort to traditional treatment or try to use ointment to relieve the pain.Treatment for knee joint pain should be prescribed only after its cause has been accurately determined.Only then can we draw a conclusion about what to do and how to treat the disease.Otherwise, the disease drags on for a long period.
Another cause of knee pain is injury to the meniscus, which is the cartilage that bends in the knee joint.This damage can occur in different parts of the meniscus, but in any case the person develops a tumor.
Sometimes when the knee is injured, the fluid sacs that allow the ligaments and tendons to glide smoothly become inflamed.In this case, we are talking about bursitis, which can cause pain both under the knee in the front and back.In bursitis, swelling and redness appear in the area where the inflammation develops.The person feels pain when squatting, kneeling and also when straightening the affected knee.Bursitis can develop under the kneecap (called pre-cap bursitis) and, when infected, causes very severe swelling, general malaise and fever.If the infection affects the area under the left or right knee at the back, the pain on the inside of the knee becomes severe when the person goes up or down stairs.
When trauma, wounds, or degeneration of the cartilage or bone occur, parts of the cartilage can become loose and become loose inside the cup.A person does not think about how to treat this condition until the loose body begins to interfere with the movement of the joint.In this case, pain appears.
When the kneecap is dislocated, the person notices the abnormal position of the kneecap: it becomes perpendicular to the correct position.Symptoms of this phenomenon are pain, swelling in the affected area, severe discomfort when stretching the legs and walking.A kneecap dislocation that occurs once often occurs again in the future.Therefore, doctors advise doing special exercises aimed at supporting muscles.
When the knee joint expands due to an injury, the knee becomes stretched and can bend in the opposite direction.This damage is characterized by the appearance of a tumor, and the person is also bothered by pain in the inner part of the knee.This injury is also dangerous because it leads to partial or complete rupture of the ligaments.
Chronic diseases are a separate group of diseases that cause knee pain.In rheumatoid arthritis, which affects all ligaments, including the knee, the person suffers not only from pain in the back and front of the knee, but also from general stiffness of movement.Deformation of the knee joints occurs gradually, the patient suffers from constant malaise.In arthritis, both knees are affected at the same time;Exacerbations and periods of calm occur periodically.Septic arthritis is a consequence of infection.Its symptoms are pain, redness, swelling.A person may feel that the pain is located in a vein.This condition often leads to fever.
In osteoporosis, which is commonly called degenerative arthritis, pain under the knee in the back and front develops due to wear and tear of the cartilage.The disease develops gradually;As a rule, knee pain initially worries when the weather changes, in the morning.Later, the condition worsens.As this disease develops less frequently in men, osteoporosis is often the cause of knee pain in women.
At the same time, the causes of acute knee pain can be the development of gout.This disease manifests suddenly with redness, swelling and severe pain.The knee joints remain in this state for about 10 days and the discomfort only disappears after a few weeks.
However, sometimes knee pain is a consequence of common overexertion.People who are not used to sports training may notice that the legs below the knees and the knees themselves hurt when running long distances, as well as when walking if the person is already very tired.To avoid this, you need to avoid overloads and gradually increase your training pace.
In addition to the diseases and conditions described, pain in the anterior part of the knee joint may accompany chondromalacia of the patella.Osgood-Schlatter disease is most often diagnosed in young people who actively play sports.In this case, the pain can be of varying intensity.Often a person is bothered by pain in the legs below the knee.
How to get rid of knee pain?
There are a number of general recommendations, the implementation of which allows you to reduce the risk of developing diseases and conditions that lead to knee pain.One of the causes of these diseases is being overweight.Indeed, in this case, the tension in the knee joints increases with any physical exertion.People who tend to be overweight are more likely to develop osteoporosis, causing cartilage problems.
It happens that a person feels pain on the side of the knee when bending or in another area after having strained the muscles too much under excessive load.It could be physical work, cycling or very intense exercise.In this case, it is important not only to give the body adequate loads, but also to provide sufficient rest so that the muscles can recover.
Answering the question of why the knees are damaged, experts note insufficient muscle flexibility.If the muscles are very weak or tense, during physical exertion and even when walking, the tension in the knee joint is not alleviated.As a result, it may initially be painful for a person to bend and straighten the knee, and later the pain may even become constant.Therefore, in this case, adequate training and regular performance of specially selected physical exercises are necessary to develop and strengthen muscles.
Additionally, knee pain when bending and walking develops into flat feet if one leg is shorter than the other.Such defects must be corrected with the help of special shoes, otherwise, over time, the pain can develop into chronic, and it will not only be painful for a person to bend the leg at the knee, but also difficult to walk.
There is no need to take risks and participate in sports competitions where there is a high probability of overload.If a person practices skiing, athletics, basketball or other sports where the risk of falls, injuries and overloads is increased, he must calculate his strength extremely correctly.
The risk of injury also increases if the knee has already been injured.Therefore, if after an injury you feel pain above the knee, below the knee or directly in the joint, consult a doctor immediately.
At the first signs of pain in the knee joint, you should definitely rest your legs as long as possible.You can try to alleviate the pain by using topical pain relievers.But if the pain does not go away, you should definitely consult a specialist.Knee pain should be treated if signs of injury or serious illness appear.So, you should go to the doctor if the acute knee pain does not go away for several days, if there is swelling and vascular pain, if there is deformity in the knee.It is important to treat sore knees immediately if redness and fever occur, as this is a sign of infection.
But before starting direct treatment for pain in the knee joint, a specialist must carry out a diagnosis.Initially, a complete physical examination and detailed questioning of the patient are performed, as well as special exams.Then the doctor prescribes an x-ray, CT scan or MRI.If an infection is suspected, a blood test is necessary.Only by having the results of all studies in hand will the doctor be able to determine how to treat knee pain.
If your knee is injured, you will need to apply a bandage.However, a regular bandage is only sufficient if the injury is not serious.If it hurts a person to be on his knees, he cannot bend and straighten him without pain, then a more serious injury can be suspected.When ligaments are damaged or sprained, special bandages or casts are often needed.
To prevent the development of a tumor during an injury, it is necessary to apply ice to the injury site.You can keep the ice for a maximum of 15 minutes, and to avoid burns, first wrap it in a cloth or towel.
Painkillers are used as anti-inflammatory therapy for knee joint pain, and antibiotic treatment is sometimes necessary.
Physiotherapy is also practiced.Some exercises can be done at home, but during intensive recovery, your doctor will prescribe a visit to a physical therapy office or gym at a medical center.
Sometimes the nature of the damage is such that it is impossible to get rid of knee pain without surgery.To this end, arthroscopic surgery can be used, the use of which allows the operation to be carried out through minimal incisions.If the damage is significant, it is sometimes necessary to replace parts of the knee with special prostheses.Total knee replacement involves the installation of prostheses made of metal, polymers and plastics.Also in modern medicine, in the treatment of knee pain, some non-surgical methods are used that allow you to obtain the desired effect relatively quickly.