Dr. B.R. Verma

Arthritis is inflammation of one or more of your joints. Pain, swelling, and stiffness are the primary symptoms of arthritis. Any joint in the body may be affected by the disease, but it is particularly common in the knee.

Knee arthritis can make it hard to do many everyday activities, such as walking or climbing stairs. It is a major cause of lost work time and a serious disability for many people. There are 2 types of arthritis the knee joint in the human body can get afflicted with. They are:

• Osteoarthritis: The form of arthritis which, with increasing pain, slowly wears down the joint cartilages is called osteoarthritis. This form of arthritis usually affects people after the age 40. The symptoms of osteoarthritis include:

  • severe pain in the knee joints

  • pain after walking up the stairs and it subsiding once you are on rest

  • severe pain after the movement of joints for a long time

  • pain that becomes worse in rainy days

  • joints becoming stiff after waking up in the morning but they improve in the latter part of the day

  • pain which also occurs in the thighs and the genital regions coupled with joints swelling and joints getting stiff after rest.

• Rheumatoid Arthritis: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic form of arthritis caused because of the knee joint inflammations. This form of arthritis can occur at any age. Being an auto-immune disease, its symptoms include, but are not limited to:

  • severe pain in the morning

  • mild fever accompanying the pain

  • joints suddenly becoming swollen, red and warm causing, immense pain

  • sudden stiffness of the joints

  • pain that increases in cold weather

  • mild fever, extreme tiredness and weakening of the muscles

Doctors are still doubtful about what exactly causes the disease; but the deformation of the immune system might cause the damage of the joints, causing people who are already suffering from obesity, smokers, and women, in general, more prone to this disease.

When the knee pain is diagnosed as a form of arthritis, the following treatments are suggested:

1. If you are overweight or obese, losing some of those extra pounds can go a long way in reducing the pain.

2. Muscle-stretching exercises are effective in keeping the knee joints flexible.

3. Acupuncture and devices such as knee braces and knee caps can relieve the pain.

4. Prescribed dosage of anti-inflammatory drugs such as Tylenol, Motrin, and Advil or injections of hyaluronic acid might relieve your pain.

5. If regular treatments do not work, you might opt for knee-replacement surgery and osteotomy (the process of cutting a bone with the help of surgery) which might better the alignment of the knee by transforming the bone shapes.

Physiotherapy For Knee Arthritis

Physiotherapy treatment is aimed at improving the symptoms of the disease (i.e. knee pain, swelling, stiffness), and you should begin to notice a positive difference within one or a few physiotherapy sessions.

The main goals of physiotherapy for your knee arthritis are:

1. Reduce your knee pain and inflammation.
2. Normalise your knee joint range of motion.
3. Strengthen your knee: esp quadriceps (esp VMO) and hamstrings.
4. Strengthen your lower limb: calves, hip and pelvis muscles.
5. Improve your patellofemoral (knee cap) alignment and function.
6. Normalise your muscle lengths.
7. Improve your proprioception, agility and balance.
8. Improve your technique and function eg walking, squatting.

Knee pain is something that can affect anyone - irrespective of their age. While sometimes it may be of minor importance - and can easily be handled by self-care, often, lingering pain is a manifestation of some other serious underlying problem, such as arthritis. In this case, it is imperative that you consult a doctor and take appropriate measures to combat it.

Causes :

Arthritis: The chief cause of lingering knee pain, arthritis itself can be of a number of types:

• Osteoarthritis, which is a result of deterioration of cartilages due to wear and tear
• Rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory chronic disorder
• Septic Arthritis, causing pain, swelling and redness.
• Gout caused due to the development of uric acid crystals in the joints

Fractures: These are caused by the breaking up of the kneecap due to falls or collisions.
ACL Injuries: Caused due to the tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament (that connects the femur and the shinbone). Especially common in sportspersons such as footballers or basketball players.
Meniscus tears: The meniscus or the rubber-like cartilage (that acts as a shock absorber) can be torn by sudden jerks or excess pressure.

Symptoms:The major symptoms of knee pain include weakness, redness, instability, stiffness or the inability to properly straighten or move the leg. Often, a deformity is also visible, such as a bone sticking out of the leg - in which case it is advisable to consult a doctor immediately.

• Possible risks: Factors which include the odds of being inflicted by knee pain and cause serious complications include :
• Being overweight: This exponentially increases the stress or pressure that is applied on the knee joints - even in doing mundane tasks like walking up and down stairs.
• Excessive physical activity: Some activities, such as sports apply excess stress on the knees as compared to other tasks.
• Loss of muscle flexibility: Tightness or weakness in muscles causes increasing number of problems in the knees. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult an orthopedist.