What Physical Therapy Is

The Arthritic Knee

A common place for osteoarthritis (OA) to occur is in the knee.  This joint is susceptible to wearing away of the cartilage due to the long lever arms transmitting forces through the joint and because of its weight bearing status.  OA in the knee can be very debilitating due to severe pain that leads to inactivity and further complications and changes in lifestyle.  However, there are things that can be done to help prevent or delay OA, manage OA once it’s there, or in the worst case scenario operate to reconstruct the joint to get rid of the damaged cartilage.

The common places for OA in the knee are between the medial surfaces of the tibia (lower leg) and femur (upper leg) and between the patella (knee cap) and femur.  The established factors for the cause of OA are obesity, age, OA at other sites, previous trauma or surgery to the area or being female.  Other potential contributing factors include: physical activity, genetics, and smoking.  From this list there are many things one can do to prevent or delay their cartilage from wearing down.  The most important is living a healthy lifestyle with a good daily diet and regular physical activity.  Glucosamine and chondroitin have been shown to be better than placebos in some trials and may facilitate the maintenance of healthy cartilage when taking regularly.   But, as some healthy athletic people know, that will not always keep it away, so what can be done once your joints start to get stiff with rest and ache with activity?

First, go see your physician to make sure that is what you have.  There are various conditions, musculoskeletal and systemic, that can cause similar symptoms including other forms of arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis.  Once you know it is OA, your doctor may prescribe an anti-inflammatory to remove the chemical signals that cause the pain, but you are still left with weak and inefficient cartilage in your knee.  A physical therapist can help with best exercises practices, facilitate correction of poor and stressful body mechanics and instruct on activity modification.  As I have talked about previously, even though your joints hurt that does not mean that they need to just sit around.  They need properly dosed exercise to facilitate function and health of the remaining cartilage. 

Sometimes the best therapy in the world is not enough to facilitate a full functional lifestyle and that is when you would need to consult an orthopedic physician for more invasive options.  No matter what level of OA you have in your knee there are options for treatment.  You do not have to suffer from excruciating knee pain due to OA.