Arthrosis is the most common joint disease, can affect all joints in the body.
Knee arthrosis (osteoarthrosis), the most common type of arthrosis, is a degeneration of the articular cartilage around a joint. When knee arthrosis develops, the cartilage undergoes gradual changes – loosing elasticity, hardening, and cracking, becoming more easily damaged and eroded by use or injury. The main symptoms are: pain, causing loss of abilitiy and often stiffness.
There are many different levels of severity of damage, from mild cases without symptoms or with mild symptoms to advanced cases where the cartilage is worn down to the point where bone rubs on bone, damaging the bones and causing severe knee pain.
Causes of arthrosis:
The alignment of the legs: blow-legged (genu varum) or knock knee’d (genu valgum). The abnormal distribution of pressure can lead to wearing of cartilage.
- Overweight – places excess pressure on the cartilage.
- Prior trauma – fractures, ligamentous injuries (especially (ACL), meniscus problems (the medial and lateral meniscus are very important shock absorbers)
- Certan diseases (arthritis, RA, osteoporosis, infections,)
Prevention:
- Maintaining a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do for your knees
- Building up your muscles (your quadriceps and hamstrings) which support your knees. Balance and stability training (physical therapy) helps the muscles around your knees work together more effectively.
- Be carefull about exercise. If you have arthrosis, or chronic knee pain you may need to change the way you exercise. Temporary you may need just physical therapy.
Treatment:
Treatment generally involves a combination of exercise (physical therapy) and lifestyle modification.
Physical therapy and knee braces also can help relieve knee pain. In some cases, however, your knee may require surgical repair.
Physical therapy:
Studies have shown that physical therapy and supervised exercise can improve function for knee arthrosis patients and even delay or prevent surgery in many cases. After an evaluation, the physical therapist will recommend specific exercises to improve your range of motion, and build muscle strength.
The reason, which causes atrophy of muscle and muscle weakness, is the decrease of knee activity of the patients in order to avoid pain. As the result, the nearby lack effective in stimulation and knee joint is not strong enough to support weight. Do you need special exercises to increase muscle strength, and the knee joint stability.Try to include enough flexibility exercises in your practice.
Benefits of physical therapy for knee arthrosis:
- Increases range of motion
- Increases flexibility and strength of joints and muscles
- Helps in maintaining body weight that can pressurize the hip and knee joints
- Bones and tissues are strengthened
- Reduces risks to injuries
- Improves balance and endurance
The types of range-of-motion exercises:
- Active range-of-motion – patient exercises without any assistance
- Active assistive range-of-motion – patient requires some help from physical therapist to do the exercises
- Passive range-of-motion – physical therapist moves patient through range of motion (no effort from patient)
Consult your physician or physical therapist with the help of whom you can derive individualistic exercises to meet your needs and lifestyle.