If knee pain and stiffness stop you from going hiking, playing pickleball, shopping with friends or simply completing daily activities around your home, arthritis may be to blame. Knee arthritis is inflammation of the joint. Without treatment, this disease can cause major damage to the knee, reducing range of motion and leaving you with bone-on-bone knee pain.
Though arthritis doesn’t have a cure, Summit Orthopedics experts can help people in the Minneapolis/St. Paul find treatments so you control discomfort, stay active and enjoy the best quality of life possible.
What Is Knee Arthritis?
Three bones form your knee: the femur (thighbone), tibia (shinbone) and patella (kneecap). Cartilage covering the ends of these bones and a lubricating liquid called synovial fluid allow the joint to move smoothly. If you have osteoarthritis—the most common form of knee arthritis—the cartilage may gradually wear away until the bones grind against each other and form small growths called bone spurs. This disease often affects adults older than 50.
Osteoarthritis isn’t the only form of arthritis that can affect the knee. Arthritis can also develop in the joint after a traumatic injury (known as posttraumatic arthritis) or due to mistaken attacks by the immune system (rheumatoid arthritis).
What Does Arthritis in the Knee Feel Like?
Knee osteoarthritis feels differently to everyone. In general, though, early knee arthritis symptoms usually start slowly and gradually get worse. At first, you may feel pain when using your knee. As the disease progresses, discomfort may occur even at rest, including at night.
Watch for these symptoms:
- Difficulty getting out of a chair
- Difficulty walking, standing or sitting for extended periods of time
- Locking of the knee
- Pain that occurs when you’re active
- Pain that’s worse in the morning or when you move your knee after a period of rest
- Reduced range of motion in the joint
- Stiffness
- Swelling
- Unusual sounds coming from your knee, such as grating, clicking or snapping
- Weakness or buckling of the knee
Knee Arthritis Causes and Risk Factors
Osteoarthritis occurs when the cartilage in the knees undergoes changes that prompt it to start breaking down. Several factors can increase your risk for knee osteoarthritis. Some you can change, but others you can’t control.
Knowing your risk factors can help you protect your knees as you age. These factors include:
- Aging: As you get older, your cartilage becomes less resilient and has a harder time repairing itself.
- An unhealthy weight: Excess weight places an extra burden on the knees, which may set the stage for arthritis.
- Family history: You may be more likely to develop osteoarthritis of the knees if a parent or another close relative had it.
- Injury: An injury to the knee can lead to arthritis later in life.
- Repetitive stress: Jobs and activities that require frequent kneeling or squatting place stress on the knees. The extra stress may cause damage that can contribute to arthritis.
- Sex: Women have a higher risk than men for osteoarthritis, perhaps due to differences in bone structure and hormones.
When to See a Physician
If persistent knee symptoms hinder your ability to work, exercise, move around your home or participate in your favorite activities, tell your primary care provider. They may refer you to an orthopedic specialist for a detailed diagnostic evaluation. The orthopedic specialist will work with you to find the most effective treatment, starting with conservative options and progressing to surgery if needed. With treatment, you can return to an active lifestyle without knee pain holding you back.
Diagnosing Knee Arthritis
Your physician will ask about your medical history and symptoms and examine your knee. They may also order diagnostic imaging tests to look for evidence of arthritis in the joint.
Medical History and Physical Exam
Your physician will review your medical history to learn about your overall health and find out about any injuries or conditions that may increase your risk for arthritis in the knee. They will also ask about your symptoms, including how they feel, when they started, when they improve or worsen, and how they affect your quality of life.
The physician will conduct a physical exam to better understand your health and, importantly, the condition of your knee. They may watch you walk to look for problems with your gait, feel the knee for tenderness or swelling, bend the joint to check its range of motion, and listen for creaking or other abnormal sounds.
Imaging Tests
To confirm the diagnosis, your physician may order an X-ray, the go-to imaging test for finding arthritis in the knee. X-rays show bony changes that could indicate arthritis, such as bone spurs or narrowing of the space between bones. The physician may also order a CT scan or an MRI to look for arthritis-related changes to the knee’s soft tissues, but these tests often aren’t necessary.
Treatment Options for Knee Arthritis
Knee joint pain treatment options range from conservative, such as physical therapy, medications and lifestyle changes, to surgically removing the damaged cartilage or replacing the joint. Like many people, you may find the relief you’re looking for from nonsurgical treatments. If they aren’t effective, surgery may help you regain your quality of life.
Lifestyle Changes
Simply changing some of your habits may slow the breakdown of cartilage in your knee. Here’s what you can do:
- Avoid activities that trigger symptoms, such as climbing stairs.
- Replace high-impact exercises that involve repetitive pounding of your knees, such as running on asphalt, with low-impact activities that are easier on the joints, like cycling, swimming or walking.
- Shed pounds to get to and maintain a healthy weight, which will take excess pressure off your knees.
Physical Therapy
In physical therapy, you’ll learn knee arthritis exercises that can improve your range of motion and flexibility. In addition, exercising under the guidance of a physical therapist can strengthen the muscles that support your joint and help distribute force evenly, which may reduce pain in the knee.
Medications
Many medicines are available to help relieve knee pain due to arthritis. You can try nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, or other pain relievers, such as acetaminophen. Both are available without a prescription. If over-the-counter medications don’t work, your physician can prescribe stronger medications.
Injections
Your physician may suggest a therapeutic injection to relieve pain.
- Joint fluid therapy involves injecting hyaluronic acid into the knee, which helps the bones move against each other more smoothly.
- Platelet-rich plasma therapyinvolves separating cells called platelets from your blood, concentrating them and injecting them into the joint. Substances called growth factors in the platelets promote healing and reduce pain.
- Steroid injections send anti-inflammatory medication into the knee to reduce pain and swelling.
Assistive Devices
You may find that using an assistive device, such as a walker, helps you get around easier and with less discomfort. Your physician may recommend wearing a knee brace for arthritis, such as an unloader brace, during activity. This brace redistributes pressure away from the painful part of the knee. You may also try a support brace, which reinforces the entire knee.
Surgery
Not everyone finds the relief they’re looking for with nonsurgical treatments. If that’s the case for you, surgery can be an effective way to improve your quality of life and start feeling like you again. Orthopedic surgeons offer several procedures for knee arthritis:
- Arthroscopy: Using tiny incisions and small surgical instruments, the surgeon will remove loose cartilage so you can move the knee more naturally and with less pain.
- Total knee replacement: Your surgeon will remove damaged cartilage and bone and replace them with metal or plastic components.
- Partial knee replacement: If you only have damage in one of the knee’s three compartments, your surgeon may replace that portion of the joint instead of all of it.
Find your Summit Orthopedics arthritis care expert, request an appointment or call us at (651) 968-5201 to schedule a consultation.
