In knee arthrosis, the joint cartilage of the knee joint has increasingly deteriorated, resulting in pain and restricted mobility in the course of the disease. This wear and tear of the cartilage becomes more and more frequent with increasing age and can be favored by genetic disposition, for example. Malpositions of the joint such as “X-” or “O- legs” or injuries to the ligaments and menisci of the knee can also cause early arthrosis. In the beginning, knee arthrosis usually manifests itself through pain at the beginning of a movement and during heavy loads, later on pain can even occur at rest.
Treatment
Knee arthrosis can be treated conservatively, i.e. without surgery, or surgically. In conservative therapy, the aim is to build up the muscles surrounding the knee in order to stabilize the joint and to work out ways to relieve the strain on the joint. This can include weight reduction, for example, but it is also important to exercise a lot in joint-gentle sports such as swimming or cycling and in physiotherapy.
In addition, pain medication can be started and aids such as a crutch or buffering shoe heels can relieve the joint. There are various surgical options for a knee joint endoprosthesis. The entire joint or only parts of it can be artificially replaced, depending on how severely the joint cartilage is affected. Exercises to build up muscles surrounding the knee or information on physiotherapy for knee arthrosis can be found in these articles:
- Physiotherapy for knee arthrosis
- Exercises legs
Exercises
Active exercises are very important in the conservative treatment of knee arthrosis as well as in the follow-up treatment of a joint-replacing operation. Since the knee joint, unlike the hip, for example, is a muscle-guided joint, strong thigh and lower leg muscles contribute greatly to the stability and guidance of the joint. Active exercises can have a positive effect on the mobility of the joint and the pain of knee arthrosis. Good general physical fitness and a healthy weight contribute to the fact that osteoarthritis progresses less rapidly and occurs later in other joints. Example exercise: Lunging steps
- The blood circulation
- The nutritional situation of cartilage
- Improve the flexibility of the capsule-tape apparatus.
- Starting position: Lunge, legs are about 1m apart, both feet point forward
- Execution: let the back knee drop to just above the ground, the front knee bends to 90°, take care not to push the front knee over the tip of the footRepeat the exercise 15 times with each side
