In life, many people have been found out of knee degenerative disease in hospital examination, but most people don't know what 'knee degenerative disease' means. Knee degenerative disease, also known as knee osteoarthritis, is a common chronic joint disease, mainly a joint disease of new bone hyperplasia caused by knee cartilage degeneration. So how is knee degenerative disease caused? How to treat it? This article brings you a specific introduction to knee degenerative diseases. Let's have a look.
Pathological changes of degenerative lesions of knee joint
The knee joint is the most active joint in the human body, second only to the ankle joint, so it is also the joint with the earliest degradation and the most damage in the human body. The middle-aged and elderly people over 45 years old, especially women, will cause the degeneration and atrophy of the hyaline cartilage of the knee joint due to their hormone level. In addition, some slight damage will lead to local necrosis of the hyaline cartilage. At this time, the body will start to repair by itself, but the exuded joint fluid is acidic, which will form a variety of chemical inflammatory mediators, Cause joint swelling, pain, difficulty walking and a series of symptoms.
How is knee joint degenerative disease caused
There are three main factors causing knee degenerative diseases, namely, knee weight-bearing and hyperactivity, articular cartilage dystrophy and joint injury. The details are as follows:
1. Joint load-bearing and hyperactivity: too much load can cause excessive joint bearing pressure, cause long-term abnormal stimulation, and joint deformation over time; Joint hyperactivity increases the wear frequency, while the self repair function of elderly patients is weakened, so joint deformation occurs.
2. Nutritional disorder of articular cartilage: nutritional disorder mainly makes the cartilage repair slow, unable to maintain normal metabolism, and finally makes the cartilage fibrous degeneration and degeneration, resulting in deformity.
3. Recurrent joint injury: the injury will inevitably cause a large number of local fibroblasts to proliferate and form scar tissue. In addition, the movement of elderly patients is reduced, and they will continue to harden for a long time, resulting in joint degeneration.
X-ray examination of degenerative lesions of knee joint
Through the X-ray plain film of the patient, it can be clearly seen that the periosteum at the joint degeneration is thickened, osteophyte formation or hyperosteogeny, and the joint is hypertrophic. At the same time, the inner side of the joint space becomes narrower and heavier. MRI can show obvious effusion in different degrees, changes of articular cartilage and meniscus, local fibrosis and cartilage atrophy in the later stage. Or can see joint free body, ligament signal increase and other symptoms.
How is knee joint degenerative disease treated
In the past, the treatment of knee degenerative diseases was medication, injection, external application of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and physiotherapy, etc. these treatments have been clinically proved to be only temporary pain relief and can not be cured. Because there is no blood supply in the knee joint cavity, drugs can not enter the joint cavity at all, and pain making substances such as joint fluid, necrotic cells and bone debris in the joint cavity can not be brought out naturally. Moreover, they accumulate more and more, and the pain is more and more serious, which can not only cure, but also organize the development of the disease.
At present, the most effective way for knee degenerative diseases is minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery. The working principle is to place a rod-shaped optical endoscope with a diameter of 5mm into the joint cavity through the joint space, target and locate the diseased parts and tissues in the joint cavity, enlarge these diseased parts and tissues by 4-6 times, and display them on the monitor under visual and intuitive operation, Remove and repair damaged tissues to achieve painless and rapid cure.