Associated symptoms | Swollen joints

Associated symptoms

The swollen joint is usually accompanied by movement-related pain and movement restrictions. Often there is also a sensitivity to pressure in the area surrounding the joint. If an inflammation is the trigger, the five cardinal signs of inflammation can often be observed: Swelling, overheating, redness, pain and limited function.

If fever accompanies the swelling of the joint, it is relatively certain that bacterial or viral inflammation is the cause of the swelling, in which case a doctor should be consulted for therapy. If the swelling of the joint is accompanied by a bluish discoloration, this should also be clarified by a doctor, as it is probably a joint bleeding. Typical accompanying symptoms of rheumatic disease and arthrosis are morning stiffness.

The patient needs about 30 minutes until he can move the affected joint properly again and the pain improves. Consequently, the mobility improves during the course of the day through exercise. Arthrosis is also referred to as “starting pain”, which occurs at the beginning of a movement and improves over the course of the day.For example, pain initially occurs when walking after prolonged sitting or standing.

and symptoms of osteoarthritisTreated with one or more swollen joints, red spots may or may not be related. The cause for the appearance of the red spots in combination with joint swelling can be, for example, psoriasis, which occurs in some patients with joint involvement. The skin rash is usually strech-sided and, as the name of the disease suggests, scaly.

Lupus erythematosus, a rheumatic inflammatory disease, can also be associated with joint problems and a rash (especially in sun-exposed areas). However, other symptoms also occur, such as the characteristic butterfly-shaped redness on the face. The disease occurs mainly in young women.

Also in Lyme disease, joint problems in an advanced stage can be accompanied by a red spot. This red spot is a tick bite, the carrier of Lyme disease, and a red rash spreads by migrating, which is why it is also called wandering blush. Also the rheumatic fever, which typically occurs in children, is one of the main symptoms associated with joint complaints/swelling of joints.

The so-called erythema nodosum, a red very painful knot, as well as the erythema anulare, a ring-shaped redness mostly on the trunk, can occur as red spots. Pain is a typical accompanying symptom of a swollen joint. Especially in trauma-induced joint swelling, pain is actually always present.

Pain is also a typical symptom complex in inflammatory processes. In rheumatic complaints, pain also occurs both at rest and under stress. Accordingly, swelling of the joints occurs only in very few cases when it is detached from pain.

If a joint swelling is accompanied by fever, the first suspicion is that it is an infectious joint effusion, i.e. a bacterial or viral joint inflammation. The pathogens may have entered the joint through inflammation of the gastrointestinal or urinary tract, for example, and are then usually referred to as reactive arthritis. Such joint inflammation often occurs after an operation on the joint, for example during a joint puncture.

During such operations, we always try to work as sterile as possible, but an inflammation can never be completely ruled out as a complication. If joint problems occur in children between the ages of five and fifteen years, about two to three weeks after a respiratory tract infection, one should also think of rheumatic fever as a cause. The cause of rheumatic fever is streptococci. Antibodies, which are formed by the body against streptococci, attack not only the bacteria, but unfortunately in the case of rheumatic fever, also the body’s own structures. However, rheumatic fever now occurs only very rarely due to the targeted administration of penicillin.