Typical symptoms that occur with arthrosis
There are characteristic symptoms of osteoarthritis complaints that apply to almost all joints, regardless of where the osteoarthritis manifests itself. The symptoms of osteoarthritis include
- The initial pain: This is understood to be the typical pain intensification or the typical pain occurrence at the beginning of a load, e.g. hip joint pain after getting up from a chair after a long period of sitting or in the morning after getting up. The arthrosis patient needs a little to “get going”.
Once the joint has warmed up, the symptoms improve. – The pain of strain: The joint can sometimes be strained quite well for a while. After a certain time, however, the pain intensifies again.
Sometimes the joint feels warm and swells up. The symptoms increase in the course of the day. Rest improves the symptoms.
Other characteristics of osteoarthritis are: The leading symptom of osteoarthritis is joint pain. They are divided into a so-called early triad and a late triad. The early triad occurs mainly in mild arthrotic processes and consists of initial pain, which occurs mainly in the morning after getting up (as the first pain in movement), fatigue pain (after long and monotonous movements) and stress pain, which occurs mainly in the case of strong, stressful movements.
The pain has the character of a radiating pain. It can happen that the pain is projected in a completely different place, far away from the area of origin (e.g. knee pain in hip arthrosis). The symptoms of late triad usually occur with advanced arthrosis.
They consist of a permanent pain that occurs independently of movement, a night pain that occurs mainly when resting and pain in the muscles. A characteristic feature of late triias is the restriction of movement, which is noticeable in that habitual movements can no longer be carried out and blockages in the joint occur. In some cases there is a sensitivity to the weather (patients experience particularly severe pain in certain weather conditions).
Sometimes there are also so-called crepitations, i.e. bone rubbing. In advanced cases there are symptoms of thickening of the joints, as well as joint deformities, instability of the joints, malposition of the joints and atrophy of muscles (collapsed muscle bellies). In severe cases, muscle contractures occur in which the muscles are tight and crampy (cramps).
In so-called activated arthrosis, the joint and the joint environment is overheated. The joint is also painful under pressure. In some cases, a joint effusion with swelling develops. This swelling could be detected by ultrasound. – Swelling of the joint
- Overheating of the joint
- Joint stiffness
- Limited joint movement
- Modification of the shape of the joint
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