Rheumatoid Arthritis Online

Arthritis Knees are commonly known as osteoarthritis, a degenerative disease where cartilage in joint gradually wears away. Another is rheumatoid arthritis, which can also affect the knees, where the joint becomes inflamed and the cartilage may be destroyed. Arthritis does not only affect the joints, even supporting structures such as muscles, tendons, and ligaments may also be affected.

Signs of Arthritis Knees and Diagnosis

A person who has knee arthritis may experience pain, swelling and a decrease knee motion. The most common symptom is morning stiffness that usually reduces after moving around. Sometimes knee joints locks or clicks when the knee is bent or straightened, but these signs may also be present in other knee disorders. The disorder may be confirmed through diagnosis performed by a doctor through x-rays, which would show loss of joint space. Blood tests are very helpful in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis, but other tests may be needed. Fluid analysis from the knee joint helps in the diagnosis of some kinds of arthritis as well. Arthroscopy can be used by the doctor to visualize damage to cartilage, tendons, and ligaments and to confirm diagnosis. However, arthroscopy is only usually done if a repair procedure is to be performed.

Arthritis Knees Treatment

In its early stages, knee arthritis is treated with non-surgical measures:

Lifestyle modification includes losing weight, switching from running or jumping exercises to swimming or cycling, and also includes minimizing activities that pushes stress on the knee like climbing the stairs.
Exercises help in increasing range of motion and flexibility as well as strengthening the muscles of the leg.
Using supportive devices such as cane, wearing a brace on knee sleeve, or wearing energy-absorbing shoes or inserts can be helpful.
Other measures like applying heat or ice, water exercises, liniments or elastic bandages, can improve the condition.

Use of prescribed drugs like anti-inflammatory medications (aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen) helps reduce swelling, glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate may relieve the pain of osteoarthritis, corticosteroids that are powerful anti-inflammatory agents that are injected to the joints, and other types of drugs. However, since every patient is different and not all people respond to the same medications, consulting a doctor is always the first step before taking any medication.

Surgical treatment

If  arthritis knees do not respond to these non-surgical treatments, then a surgey may be needed.
Arthroscopic Surgery

This type of knee arthritis surgery uses fiber optic technology to enable the surgeon to see inside the joint and clean it of debris or repair torn cartilage.

Osteotomy

This type of knee arthritis surgery cuts the shinbone (tibia) or the thighbone (femur) to improve the alignment of the knee joint.

Total or Partial Knee Arthroplasty

This type of arthritis knees surgery replaces the severely damaged knee joint cartilage with metal or plastic.

Cartilage Grafting

Is a possible procedure for some knees with limited or contained cartilage loss from trauma or knee arthritis.

New ways of treating knee arthritis have been continually researched by orthopedic surgeons as well as new drugs on cartilage transplants and other ways to help slow the progress of arthritis.

Hip Osteoarthritis is a major problem for many people; it arises as a result of deterioration, whether normal or accelerated, by rheumatoid arthritis, trauma, or joint collapse caused by a fault of blood supply to the femoral head (the ball of the joint).

The hip is made up of a ball and a socket that is resistant to wear. Joint surfaces are covered with smooth layer of cartilage, which functions as a shock absorber together with the normal joint lubrication provided by the joint lining. As a result, they provide smooth low friction surface. This surface cartilage however, has a limited capacity to heal itself. As it wears away, bone is exposed. Once the bone surfaces get in contact, they cause pain while the cartilage has no sensation. The inflammation caused by the wreckage of joint wear, causes pain and stiffness, and leads to a new bone reaction of loss of motion. When this happens, hip joint replacement is sometimes needed. This is most common with advancing age; however, there may be cases where one may be subject to early or accelerated wear that requires earlier replacement surgery.

Symptoms
Hip arthritis symptoms generally start slightly. Walking tolerance diminishes over many years to the point where one or two blocks of walking would require resting. The pain of hip arthritis is increased by activity and cold damp weather. The arthritic hip loses range of motion slowly especially rotation. Climbing or descending stairs or arising from a chair is especially painful, activities of daily living becomes difficult.

Diagnosis
Diagnosis is usually simple. Arthritis can be easily seen on plain X-rays. Hip motion is generally limited and painful, and the pain is often in the groin or radiates into the thigh or even to the knee. In cases where the x-ray and physical exam does not match the pain complaints, other tests may be done, such as MRI, bone, scan, or joint injection test to limit on the cause and source of the pain.

Surgery
Replacing the worn joint through surgery is usually performed on both the ball and the cup of the hip except in cases where there is a fracture present. Generally, the cup of the hip is replaced with a metal shell which is rough on its outer surface and encourages bone ingrowths. The femoral stem is cemented into the marrow canal of the femoral shaft, pressing on to this a metal ball with a hard plastic liner locked into the metal cup, forming a stable joint that can be walked upon right away.

A patient who would undergo total hip replacement should be ideally greater than sixty years old and with good health. There should be no history of prior hip infection, because any chronic or recurrent infection elsewhere may lead to late prosthetic infection.

Treatment of hip arthritis should begin with the most basic steps, like weight loss, activity modification, walking aids, physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications and joint supplements. Treatments of hip arthritis vary from patient to patient, and that is why discussion about proper treatments with your doctor is always required.