Knee Arthritis

What is it?
Knee arthritis is inflammation of the knee joint. There are two main types of arthritis.
Osteoarthritis is a "wear and tear" disease. This is the most common form.
Inflammatory arthritis is inflammation secondary to diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis causes the cartilage on the end of your bones to get rougher and thinner. The bone beneath compensates by thickening (sclerosis) and growing outwards, creating outgrowths (osteophytes). The space between the two bones of the knee narrows (as the cartilage thins). These make your knees look knobbly.
 
Symptoms
If you have osteoarthritis, your knee joint will be stiff and painful. The pain may be worse after you have been exercising. You may find you can't move the joint as much or as easily as before. You will probably notice times when your symptoms are worse than at others. There doesn't seem to be any particular cause for this, although you may find you are affected by changes in the weather or the amount of activity you do. If you have severe or advanced osteoarthritis, it's possible that you will feel pain all the time, even at night and when you are resting. As osteoarthritis progresses, your knee joint may become misshapen and look knobbly, and  may feel unstable.

What can be done?
Self-help - You can do this by, trying to lose any excess weight or using a walking stick
Although you may not feel like it, it's important to keep active and take regular exercise. This will help if you are trying to lose excess weight and will keep your muscles strong so they can support your joints.

Medicines - No medicine can cure osteoarthritis but they can help to relieve symptoms. Paracetamol or Non-Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen are the most common used. Inflammatory arthritis patients are usually treated with specific medication as a first-line treatment.
Complementary therapies - Although there is little evidence for the effectiveness of complementary therapies in treating osteoarthritis, 60 percent of people with all forms of arthritis have used or are using one type or another. If you have severe side-effects as a result of medication, you may find acupuncture or reflexology helpful in relieving pain.

Non-surgical treatments - A steroid injection can be helpful especially in early disease. These are given directly into the knee joint. Time of effectiveness is variable and can be short lived.
Food supplements - Glucosamine and chondroitin supplements may provide you with some pain relief, although there is only limited evidence that they are effective. These chemicals are found naturally in cartilage and it's thought that taking supplements may improve the condition of damaged cartilage. They may also slow down thinning of the cartilage. Glucosamine comes from shellfish so you shouldn't take it if you have a shellfish allergy.

Physiotherapy - This can be helpful in maintaining movement as well as muscle strength.

Surgery - At a stage when surgery is planned, options will be discussed. I carry out the following surgical procedures for knee arthritis.
Arthroscopy (key-Hole) surgery - This is used in early disease and when symptoms have been present for a relatively short time. Relief of symptoms can be short-lived. Therefore this is not an option in more advanced arthritis. Please see information sheet on this procedure.

Knee Replacement surgery
This is the mainstay of surgery for advanced arthritis. Please see information sheet on this procedure.