Pain in the knee (knee joint)

Knees are more susceptible to injuries and various diseases than other joints.A large number of orthopedic-traumatological patients and rheumatological patients complain of severe knee pain.From this article, you will learn what to do if you suddenly experience severe pain.He is being treated, the main thing is to find medical help with his problem in a short time. 

What exactly hurts the knee?

The knee joint is the most complex joint, because it bears the main load.Structure: Three bones (femur, tibia and patella form a single trochlear joint, which consists of two interconnected joints: femorotibial (tibiofemoral) and femoral-patellofemoral (patellofemoral).

The patella is a flat sesamoid (an appendage in the joint) of bone that is attached to the head of the femur, slides in its concave groove and acts as a block.Structural features: The anterior surface of the patella is covered with periosteum, the posterior surface, which connects to the femur, is covered with hyaline cartilage.The patella is strengthened by ligaments: primary and lateral - vertical (top and bottom) and horizontal (lateral - internal and external).

O Transmits the force of the quadriceps femoris muscle to the musculoskeletal formation of the lower leg, ensuring the extension of the lower leg at the knee joint.The surface of the bones forming the joint is covered with cartilage, which acts as a shock absorber.Additional shock absorbers that protect the joint from injury are two sickle-shaped cartilaginous menisci located between the femur and tibia.Joints are held in the correct position by surrounding ligaments, tendons and capsules.

Injuries and diseases affect various joint tissues.Not all of them can be sick.Therefore, cartilage tissue does not have nerve endings and therefore can be destroyed imperceptibly and painlessly.But ligaments and synovial membranes have many nerve endings and in case of injury or inflammatory process they immediately begin to react, which manifests itself in the form of severe pain.With significant destruction of articular cartilage, pain may be associated with the involvement of the periosteum, the well-preserved outer layer of bone, in the process.

What to do if you have severe knee pain

Severe knee pain may appear suddenly or develop gradually.In any case, it often becomes unbearable.If severe pain occurs, you need to calm down and immediately seek medical help.All this can be treated, specialists will be able to help even with advanced diseases.If you can't see a doctor at this time, you can temporarily relieve the pain yourself.

But you should remember that if you experience pain in the knee joint, this is a temporary measure;You still need to seek medical help;You can not do without it.And it is better not to delay.

How to treat knee and leg pain at home

To reduce your situation with severe pain in the knee joint, you can take the following emergency measures:

• Treat pain with tablets.
• Use external pain relievers (ointment, gel).
• Injection.If there is no effect from tablets and external agents, this drug is administered as an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection.

Many medicines can be bought at the pharmacy without a prescription.

For chronic pain in the knee joint, when there is no significant inflammation, you can do physical exercises that strengthen the muscle-ligament system, improve blood circulation and metabolism.Systematic training leads to a gradual decrease in pain, despite the fact that the legs are quite crunchy.

Budget exercise set for knee pain:

1. Fixed knees.Lie on your back, bend one leg at the knee, lift and hold in this state for a minute;The second leg does not move at this time;Straighten and lower your leg slowly, rest for 10 seconds and repeat the exercise with the other leg;repeat 10 times;
2. Double bent legs with knees near the face.Lie on your back, bend your legs at the hips and knees, place the second one near your face and hold it like that for one minute.Then slowly straighten and lower your legs, rest for 10 seconds and repeat;Do 5-6 approaches, gradually increasing the load.

Acute pain in the knee requires rest;All physical activities and exercises are contraindicated.

If there is acute pain in the knee joint, accompanied by swelling and redness of the skin, violation of the general condition, fever, you cannot move the leg, it must be kept at rest.And only after the inflammation begins to subside, you can move first to passive exercises (performed by an assistant) and then to active exercises (performed by the patient himself).

What not to do if you are in pain

For chronic pain, the following should not be allowed:

• Bruised knees - You can avoid this by organizing your life in such a way as to reduce the risk of injury to a minimum;
• Excess body weight is an additional load on the knees, especially in the elderly;
• strenuous physical activity, jumping, strength sports;You don't even have to walk;
• Any intoxication, so you need to get rid of bad habits (smoking, alcohol abuse), treat all chronic diseases and foci of infection;
• wearing uncomfortable tight shoes, high-heeled shoes;
• stress, lack of sleep;
• Sedentary lifestyle - you need to force yourself to move at certain intervals.

It is also impossible to take advantage of warm compresses without a doctor's prescription: In case of purulent and hemorrhagic processes (with intra-articular bleeding), they can cause irreparable harm.

When you need to see a doctor immediately

If your knee hurts, immediate medical attention is needed if the following symptoms appear:

• swelling, redness and tenderness in the knee combined with fever and general weakness;
• severe pain in the knee immediately after the injury or some time after;
• gradual increase in pain intensity;
• Periodically, pain appears after physical work, prolonged standing, sharp leg cramps;
• night pain and associated insomnia;
• If the pain in the knee is very strong, constant, the feeling that the inside of the patella hurts.

In any case, pain in the knee should be a reason to consult a doctor.There is no point in treating yourself: it may reduce or even eliminate the pain, but it will not stop the progression of the disease and the destruction of the joints.Treatment should be entrusted to a specialist.

What to do for severe pain in the knee of various types

Painful sensations in the knee can vary in nature and duration among people.They can always be sick or develop only under certain loads, at night, etc.For example, some pathological processes are characterized by pain in the knee when bending, others - pain in the knee when walking, etc.Only a specialist can figure out what really hurts and why, and how to help the patient.

Knee pain due to coronavirus and other viral diseases

Viral infections can cause joint inflammation.As a rule, these diseases develop against the background of an existing infection and pass without any consequences after completion.Therefore, with influenza and other acute respiratory viral infections with acute fever, both short-term joint and muscle pain and acute arthritis with inflammation and swelling of the knee joint may appear.Their courses are profitable.

The coronavirus infection has its own characteristics: it occurs differently in each patient.Why this happens is unknown.During this disease, joint pain, swelling and redness sometimes appear - signs of acute arthritis, but then they go away.

Arthritis, which starts about a month after the coronavirus infection, is more dangerous.In fact, it has a significant effect on the immune system.Damage to the immune system leads to the development of autoimmune processes.This is especially dangerous for people who have close relatives who suffer from chronic arthritis.Experts noted a high risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in such patients.The first sign of RA is stiffness of movement in the morning (difficulty bending the knee).

If arthritis appears after recovery from a viral infection, you should immediately contact a rheumatologist.

Severe pain below the knee

This may be a sign of the development of a baker's cyst - a diffuse synovial bursa with fluid located in the popliteal area.Cystic and related pain under the knee appears due to the fact that it is connected to the knee joint cavity and is filled with synovial fluid.In this case, reverse fluid flow is difficult for various reasons.Often, the cyst develops against the background of bruises, arthrosis and knee arthritis.

Small cysts can go unnoticed for years.But with its significant size, the surrounding tissues begin to be compressed, causing pain under the knee, which increases with physical activity, including walking and walking.Women are getting sicker.Sometimes the cyst disappears on its own, but often it grows and increases in size, which can cause rupture or suppuration.

If you experience pain below your knee, it is best to consult a doctor as soon as possible.Conservative (removal of fluid from the cyst, injection of glucocorticoids into it) and surgery (removal of the cyst treatment) are carried out.

Severe pain in the left or right knee

Severe pain in combination with swelling and redness of the skin above the right or left knee usually indicates the development of an acute inflammatory process.This can be acute nonspecific arthritis (the process can be purulent), reactive arthritis, which begins a few days after a urogenital or intestinal infection.Both diseases occur with the same symptoms;The correct diagnosis can only be established after a full examination.

The right or left knee can experience microtraumas, for example, in athletes or workers in certain professions who use one (usually right) knee more.

It is important at the initial stage not to use folk remedies, but to carry out the correct treatment, this will allow you to fully recover and forget the pain forever.But even with an advanced disease, a specialist will always be able to provide help and relieve pain.

Knee and leg pain

Depending on the cause of the disease, the course and the presence of complications, severe knee pain may include:

• in the shin below the knee- rarely, this may indicate compression of the nerve branch absorbing the muscles of the lower leg by inflamed periartic tissue, swelling in the knee area;Pain below the knee in the back indicates compression of the sciatic nerve branch, and pain below the knee in the front indicates that the nerve innervating the anterior surface of the leg is affected;The disease is treated by a rheumatologist, but consultation with a neurologist is required;
• above the knee, to the thigh-often a sign of the post-traumatic inflammatory process in the femoral-patellar joint;In this case, patellofemoral pain syndrome develops;Strong pain, aching, sometimes twitching, aggravated by walking;Orthopedic-traumatologists and rheumatologists will help you cope with pain;
• from the side, from the inside- Pain can develop with injury and damage to the internal lateral articular ligament;The pain in the side is strong, jerking, with hemarthrosis (intra-articular bleeding) - rupture, accompanied by joint imbalance, the whole leg crunches when moving;The same pain appears when the external collateral ligament is dislodged;Help will be provided by an orthopedist-traumatologist.

To get rid of pain, you need to determine the exact cause, and this is impossible to do on your own.Need a doctor's help.

Patella pain in the back, front and sides

Pain in the patella is almost always the result of an acute or chronic injury:

• back knee pain- Causes associated with damage to the femoral-patellar joint with the development of patellofemoral pain syndrome;The pain is aching, constant, aggravated by walking;
• Front- The painful sensation is caused by a shallow bruise of the knee or a frequent prolonged stay in the knee with microtrauma to the knee;Pain is important, because the periosteum, rich in nerve endings, is injured;
• lateral knee painIn case of rupture or injury of the horizontal internal or external patellar ligament;Injury can develop with long-term microtrauma of the ligament, for example, when jumping;accompanied by bleeding into the joint cavity (hemarthrosis);Strong, constant pain, accompanied by swelling;Movement in the legs is affected.

To prevent permanent joint dysfunction from developing at the site of injury, you should immediately seek help from an orthopedic traumatologist.

Knee pain radiates to the leg, heel, groin

The causes of acute radiating pain in the knee need to be understood.The reasons may be:

• femoral nerve entrapment;The pain is acute, piercing in nature, starts sharply in the groin area, spreads along the anterior surface of the thigh and knee, along the nerve branches it can reach the edge of the foot and heel;Sometimes the patient gets the impression that the knee hurts, but this is not the case;
• Arthritis (gonarthritis) of various origins: joint swelling leads to pinched nerves and the spread of sharp pain in the knee to the groin and to the heel;In this case, the most painful pain is felt in the knee, which with sudden movement turns into acute pain with radiation above and below the knee;
• bruising accompanied by hemarthrosis, ligament rupture, severe swelling and nerve compression;
• bruises with fracture or dislocation of the patella and joint imbalance;Acute pain in the knee extends to the thigh to the groin, along the inner surface of the shin - lower, to the heel.

This severe knee pain requires immediate medical attention.No folk remedies will help, you need to call an ambulance.

Knee pain during extension and flexion

Often, pain in the knee during flexion and extension, as well as when squatting, is a sign of tendonitis - an inflammatory process in the area of the tendon-ligamentous apparatus of the knee joint.It develops mainly in young men involved in sports and as a result of repeated microtraumas associated with jumping and constant shaking of limbs.The first sign is the inability to straighten the knee without pain.

The cause of painful flexion and extension of the knee can also be arthrosis - degenerative -dystrophic changes in the joint with the growth of connective tissue and bones that interfere with movement.

Only the treatment of tendinitis or arthrosis helps relieve the patient from severe pain in the knee when flexing and extending.

Severe knee pain at night

Night pain is characteristic of the inflammatory process.This may be latent arthritis, the knee joint is periodically caused by arthrosis (arthrosis-arthritis).During sleep, joint tissue and periarthritis heat up, blood vessels dilate, which increases swelling.

The periarticular tissue swells, compresses the nerve endings, and pain develops.If at the same time there is pain behind the knee, then this may be a sign of a baker's cyst.How to get rid of aches and pains at night?Treatment of the underlying disease helps.

Knee pain while walking

Pain when moving, jogging, troublesome pain under the knee is characteristic of the degenerative-dystrophic process in the knee - arthrosis, because during movement the articular surface is injured, completely or partially without shock-absorbing cartilage.The periosteum, which has good preservation, suffers.Knee pain when going down stairs is also very common.After exercise, the patient notes that the pain in the knee continues to hurt for some time.Over time, pain appeared in the legs.

Long-term rehabilitation treatment with the use of chondroprotectors - drugs that restore cartilage tissue - will help.In case of complete destruction of the joint - endoprosthetics.

Pain after exercise - squats, running, lifting weights

This indicates long-term microtrauma of the knee joint and the gradual formation of a degenerative-dystrophic process in it.Sometimes pain appears in one right or left knee.Joints Crunch.

If there is severe pain in the knee after training, then the athlete needs rehabilitation treatment.Otherwise, there will be a gradual decline in joint function, accompanied first by periodic pain and then.

Knee pain and crunching

Sharp, sudden pain in the knee and crunching (cracking) indicates a ruptured meniscus - the cartilaginous shock-absorbing pad in the knee joint.This may be due to injury or age-related wear and tear of the cartilage structure.

Severe joint pain may disappear, but pain in the knee will remain when squatting, then limb dysfunction will gradually increase, accompanied first by pain during exercise, and then by constant pain, which increases when going down the stairs.Over time, the whole body suffers and crunches, including the legs.Long-term rehabilitation treatment under the supervision of an orthopedic traumatologist helps.

Knee pain and swelling

Pain accompanied by swelling always indicates the presence of an inflammatory process.It can be aseptic (without the presence of infection, usually after an injury), infectious, infectious allergic and autoimmune (with an allergy to one's own tissue).

To get rid of such pain, you need to identify their cause and carry out the treatment prescribed by the specialist.

Injuries and diseases that cause knee pain

The most common pathologies accompanied by knee pain are:

1. Closed and open knee injuries with intra-articular fractures, dislocations, meniscal tears.All of them lead to the development of an inflammatory process (arthritis), which later becomes a degenerative-dystrophic process (arthrosis) with the formation of constant knee pain and dysfunction.This is the most common cause of knee pain.Athletes are at risk.Even a minor injury to the knee can cause the destruction of joint tissue cells, which leads to the development of the inflammatory process.With a significant injury, all these processes are pronounced and accompanied by prolonged pain.Knee instability, which develops when the ligamentous apparatus is damaged, is very important.Over time, instability increases, nearby tissues are injured, which leads to increased pain in the knee joint, especially when going down stairs.In the absence of proper treatment, the process can be complicated by infection, become purulent, threatening the patient's life, or become chronic with gradual development and joint destruction, accompanied by severe pain.
2. Arthritis of the knee joint is an inflammatory process of various origins, accompanied by an increase in body temperature and disturbances in the patient's general condition.The patient complains that the pain in the knee always hurts.This disease can be contagious, allergic, autoimmune, metabolic.The inflammatory process also occurs differently, depending on the cause that causes it (purulent, rheumatoid, psoriatic, gouty and other arthritis).Sometimes arthritis can be complicated by a baker's cyst located in the popliteal region.Then there is pain behind the knee.Only adequate treatment prescribed by a traumatologist or rheumatologist will save you from joint destruction and disability.
3. Arthrosis of the knee joint is a degenerative-dystrophic process in the joint that develops after injuries, acute and chronic inflammatory processes and against the background of age-related metabolic disorders in the elderly.There is destruction or thinning of cartilage shock-absorbing tissue (Menisci and cartilaginous layers covering the articular surfaces of bones).Joint destruction is slow but steady.I am concerned about pain and problems when moving.In old age, this is the main cause of knee pain.Bones rub against each other, their structure is destroyed, joints are deformed, all this is accompanied by severe pain.
4. Cysts and tumors.

How to treat severe knee pain

Knee injuries and diseases often lead to the development of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), pain in the anterior part of the knee joint.Changes in the joint gradually destroy the patellar cartilage, contributing to the development of joint instability and constant severe pain in the knee.Only a course of rehabilitation treatment prescribed by a qualified specialist can help.

Diagnostics

Knee pain has different causes and requires an individual approach to treatment.First of all, it is necessary to make a correct diagnosis, and this requires an examination in the clinic.And only after this is the prescribed treatment for knee pain.

Some diseases cannot be completely cured, but doctors can eliminate the pain and stop the destruction of the joints.

To establish the cause of the pain and diagnose the disease, the following examinations are performed:

• Laboratory tests-Clinical blood tests, biochemical, immunological, if necessary-sampling and examination of intra-articular fluid (microscopy, culture on nutrient media to determine the sensitivity of identified infections to antibiotics).
• Instrumental study: Ultrasound-reveal soft tissue pathology and intra-articular fluid volume Radiography- changes in knee bone tissue; CT and MRI- a more detailed study of soft and hard tissue pathology; Diagnostic arthroscopy- Appearance and changes in the synovial membrane of the knee.

Methods for treating severe knee pain

Treatment steps are determined individually.Pain associated with knee injuries is treated by orthopedic traumatology;If the disease becomes chronic, consultation with a rheumatologist is required.If there is a suspicion of a purulent inflammatory process, then the surgeon will be better able to deal with this disease.All chronic inflammatory processes in the joints are treated by rheumatologists, but certain infectious processes, for example, knee tuberculosis, are treated by photicists or other specialists in close contact with rheumatologists.

First of all, they try to eliminate pain as much as possible, using for this purpose both drug therapy (modern drugs for knee pain, including ointments), and non-drug drugs for knee pain (manual therapy, massage, therapeutic exercises, reflexology courses and other traditional methods, folk remedies).To reduce the load on the joint and make it rest, various immobilization methods are used (splints, splints), as well as recording - fixing the joint using special adhesive tape.

For all acute joint pain, emergency examination of the patient is carried out with simultaneous anesthesia.All modern and traditional pain therapy methods are used in treatment.After this, according to the indications, the patient is either hospitalized or prescribed a course of outpatient treatment followed by rehabilitation.No patient with pain is left without specialist attention.