Types of arthrosis: symptoms and methods of treatment

30 September 2025

Arthosis is a chronic joint disease, accompanied by pathological changes in the cartilage IALINA and subsequently in adjacent tissues, a joint capsule and a synovial shell.

The defeat is dystrophic and degenerative of nature, which leads to a change in the structure of the joint tissues, the loss of their functionality.In accordance with the data of the same statistics, arthrosis is subject to 12% of the total population of the planet.From 62% to 65% of all episodes of the disease falls over people over the age of 60.

Another 30-35% of cases of joint damage to this pathology is in patients aged 40 and 60.And about 3% are young people aged between 20 and 40.

What is it?

In simple words, arthrosis is a chronic disease in which progressive degenerative distance changes develop in the articulation due to the violation of metabolic processes.It is the most common joint pathology, it is diagnosed in 6-7% of the population.With age, the incidence increases drastically.

Very often, with arthrosis, small joints of the brush are involved in the pathological process (in women 10 times more often than men), the thumb of the foot, the intervertebral joints of the thoracic and cervical spine, as well as the joints of the knee and hip.The arthrosis of the joints of the knee and hip occupies a leading place in terms of gravity of the clinical manifestations and a negative effect on the quality of life.

Arthosis is characterized by complete damage to joint and auxiliary devices:

Condrite - inflammatory changes in the cartilage of the joint;
Osteite - involvement in the pathological process of the subject's bone structures;
Sinovite - Inflammation of the internal shell of the joint capsule;
Burit - defeat of Perioseman bags;
Reactive inflammation of soft tissues (muscles, subcutaneous fiber, binding apparatus) located in the projection of the articulation involved (periarticular inflammation).

The disease is detected in 2%of people under the age of 45, in 30%, from 45 to 64 years old and in 65-85%-Eding of 65 years and more.The utmost clinical importance, due to their negative impact on the standard of life and the ability of patients, are the arthrosis of the joints of great and medium of the limbs.

Types of arthrosis

Depending on the cause of the pathological process, primary, secondary and idiopathic arthrosis stands out within the joint.

The primary develops as an independent, secondary disease, following an injury or infection and the cause of the idiopathic form is not known.In addition to the classification of the disease, depending on the cause of the pathological process, arthrosis stands out in the place of location of destructive changes:

Gonartrosis is the most common type of pathology, characterized by damage to the knee joints.Very often, gonartrosis is detected in people with excess weight, with chronic metabolic diseases in the body, weak immunity.The arthrosis of the knee progresses for a long time and gradually leads to a complete loss of the motor function.
The arthrosis of the shoulder joint is the main cause of the degenerative processes in this area are congenital anomalies of the development of the shoulder joint or excessive loads in this area, for example when wearing heavy treasures on the shoulders.
The osteoarthritis of the ankle - The main causes of the development of degenerative processes in the artery articulation are injuries, disputes, lengthening, fractures.In some cases, the development of the pathological process can cause autoimmune disease - rheumatoid arthritis.The arthrosis of the ankle is subject to dancers, women who wear high heels, athletes.

Unkoarth or arthrosis of the cervical region: the causes are neck lesions, osteochondrosis, obesity, inactive lifestyle.At risk, people who work on the computer are in the offices.In addition to severe neck pain, patients have pronounced dizziness, conscientious inhibition, impairment of memory and fatigue.These symptoms are due to the compression of the vertebral artery through which nutrients and oxygen enter the brain.
Coksartrosis or arthrosis of the hip joint - The main cause of the occurrence is the changes related to age in the tissues of the joint.At risk, people over the age of 45.
The osteoarthritis of the fingers - develops for the same reason as spondularosis.
Polartrosis - characterized by damage to several joints with progressive degenerative processes in them, while ligaments, muscles and tissue joints are involved in the pathological process.
Spondilartrosis - The destructive destruction is subject to fabrics of the spinal column, that is to say its lumbar department.In the risk group of a woman during the occurrence of menopause, since spondularosis progresses against the background of a deficiency of female sex hormones.

The causes of osteoarthritis

The formation of arthrosis is facilitated by two causes: the load and the absence of a complete nutrition that provides vitamins, minerals for the restoration of the tissues.The joints of each person bring a load.The athletes and dancers, with physical work, the upstream load is greater, which means that the bone joints are consumed faster and require a high quality diet.With a calm lifestyle, the support system consumes more slowly, but also requires a periodic renewal of the fabrics.

Therefore, the main condition for the destruction and deformation of the joints is the lower nutrition, the lack of disassembly of useful components, which often occur in case of metabolic disorders.

We list the factors that contribute to the wear of joint compounds and metabolic disorders:

Muscle weakness and improper load of the joints.The weakening of one or more muscles increases the load on the joint and distributes it in a non -uniform way within the bone compound.The erroneous muscle load is also formed for the flat feet, scoliosis, therefore, with these "harmless" diseases with age, the tissues of the cartilage are consumed, arthrosis appears.
The probability of arthrosis increases with strong physical effort.

If the daily loads exceed the ability of bone tissues, microtrauma are formed.They thicken in the places of injury, which over time grow and deform the joint;
Metabolic disorders (gastrointestinal disease - stagnation of bile, dysbiosis, gastritis, cholecystitis, pancreatitis, metabolic disease - diabetes);
Psychosomatic causes - The psychosomatic of arthrosis confirms that the cause of the disease becomes a negative emotional state.Stress forms muscle spasm, constant stress interrupts the nutrition of all tissues (internal organs, bones, joints);
The inheritance (the type of metabolism is inherited and its possible violations, a tendency to muscle weakness or the incorrect formation of the bone system, with poor digestion - which is the basis for the development of osteoarthritis in old age).

Arthosis is a disease of the worn joints that have lost a significant supply of mineral substances and the ability to contrast loads and destruction.Therefore, with age, the predisposition to the disease increases.After 70 years, arthrosis is diagnosed every second pensioner.Since the maximum load falls on the feet (a person moves: walks, stands, races, jumps), so it is here that the first signs of arthrosis are formed.

The disease progression mechanism

When any of the causes that cause the disease of arthrosis, the pathological processes begin to develop in it appears.The mechanism of their progression is not completely studied, but the main phases of official medicine are known.

In the initial phase, the structure of the cartilage tissue and the abnormal changes of the synovial fluid occur.All this proceeds due to the violations of the metabolic processes in which the joint tissues do not receive the necessary components in sufficient quantities or are deprived of some of them.

Subsequently, the elasticity of the collagen fibers and the flexibility of the cartilage are lost, due to the fact that, with a lack of nutrients, hyaluronic acid does not have time to produce the softness and flexibility of the structural composition of the collagen fiber.The cartilage gradually dries, becomes fragile and cracks.The liquid in the synovial capsule is gradually depleted and then disappears completely.

Rugity, solid bone neoplasms are formed on the cartilage tissue.At the same time, the deformation of other joint tissues develops, their pathological degeneration, dystrophy and loss of physiological activity.For the patient, these changes mean the appearance of pain, lame and immobility of the joint.

Symptoms of arthrosis

Arthosis is not characterized by an acute clinical picture, the changes in the joints are progressive, slowly growing, which manifests itself from a gradual increase in symptoms:

Pain;
Crunch periodically arises in the affected articulation;
joint deformation that appears and improving as the disease progresses;
rigidity;
Limitation of mobility (reducing the volume of active and passive movements in the articulation concerned)

The pain in arthrosis is stupid transient, it appears when it moves, against the background of an intensive load, by the end of the day (it may be so intense that it does not allow the patient to fall asleep).The constant and non -colocendant nature of pain for arthrosis is unusual and indicates the presence of active inflammation (sub -controlle bone, synovial membrane, binding systems or periarticular muscles).

Most patients have noticed the presence of starting pains so called that they occur in the morning after waking up or after a long period of inaction and passage during motor activity.Many patients define this condition as the need to "develop an articulation" or "disperse".

Arthosis is characterized by morning rigidity, which has a clear location and is short (no more than 30 minutes), sometimes it is perceived by patients as a "sensation of jelly" in the joints.Perhaps a feeling of jam, rigidity.

With the development of reactive synovitis, the main symptoms of osteoarthritis come together:

Pain and local increase in the temperature determined by the palpation of the articulation concerned;
constant nature of pain;
increase in volume joint, swelling of soft tissues;
Progressive reduction in the volume of movements.

Phase and degree of arthrosis

During the disease, medicine distinguishes three phases that have differences on the signs of the disease, on the intensity of the damage and the location.At the same time, the differences in all three phases concern the types of tissues that undergo pathological changes.

The first degree of development of the arthrosis of the joints is the initial phase of the disease.It is characterized by a slight injury of the cartilage tissue and the loss of physiological functions in the collagen fibers.At the same time, in the first phase, small morphological disorders of the bone tissue and structural changes are detected in the synovial fluid.The cartilage of the joint is covered by cracks, the patient has a slight pain at the place of location of the pathology.
The second degree is the development of arthrosis with an increase in dynamics.This phase is characterized by the appearance of stable pain, Chroma.Remarkable morphological cartridges and cartilages of the cartilage are detected, during the diagnosis, bone growth are revealed.Osteophytes are formed: bone growth that are visible during a visual examination of the destruction site.At the same time, the processes of degenerative changes in the synovial capsule occur, which leads to its structural exhaustion.The disease at this stage can often worsen and be regular.The pain gradually becomes constant.
The third degree is active progression.At this stage, the synovial fluid is almost completely absent due to its degeneration and the brusque bone tissues on each other.Articular mobility is almost completely absent, pain becomes more tangible.The cartilage fabric is also absent due to degenerative and atrophic changes.The treatment of the third degree of arthrosis of the joints is considered not very practical.

In addition to these three degrees of pathology development, there is a final stage: the irrevocable destruction of all joint tissues.At this stage, it is impossible not only to conduct production therapy, but also remove pain syndrome.

The inflammatory process usually begins with a second degree of damage, in rare cases, in the absence of medical interventions - at the first stage.Subsequently, it becomes more difficult to stop it, and this can lead to secondary pathologies, the development of pathogenic microflora to the place of location of the disease.

To exclude serious consequences, the treatment should start from the first degree and the use of intensive care methods.In the last stage associated with the complete destruction of the cartilage tissue, only one methodology is allowed to guide the patient from the pain and the immobility of the joint: endopropostetic with complete or partial replacement of the components of the joint.

Consequences

The consequences of the premature treatment and the arthrosis launched of the joints are full of complications such as:

disability;
deformation without the possibility of recovery;
the appearance of the vertebrates;
an inactivity or immobility of the joint;
Reduce quality and life standard.

The chronic course, in addition to these complications, is accompanied by intense and frequent pain, the complete destruction of the structural components of the articulation, the discomfort, the inability to carry out physical work and do sports.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis of arthrosis is based on the evaluation of anamnestic data, characteristic manifestations of the disease, on the results of the instrumental research methods.The indicative changes in general and the biochemical blood tests for arthrosis are not characteristic, they appear only with the development of an active inflammatory process.

The main instrumental method for the diagnosis of arthrosis is the X -ray, in diagnostically unclear cases, the calculated or magnetic refusal tomography is recommended.

The arthrosis of the joints of the knee and hip occupies a leading place in terms of gravity of the clinical manifestations and a negative effect on the quality of life.

Additional diagnostic methods:

Atraumatic arthroscopy;
ultrasound (evaluation of the thickness of the joint cartilage, synovial shell, condition of joint bags, presence of fluid);
Scintigraphy (evaluation of the bone tissue state of the bones that form the joint).

How to treat arthrosis?

It is better to treat arthrosis of the joints in an initial phase, the treatment itself should be pathogenetic and complex.Its essence is to remove the causes that contribute to the development of this disease, it is also necessary to eliminate inflammatory changes and restore the functions that have previously been lost.

The treatment of osteoarthritis is based on different basic principles:

Saturation of the joint with oxygen or intraarticular oxygen therapy thus called.
Drug therapy.
Block intra -merged on fire, as well as the decompression of MetaPIFIZ.
Rational approach to nutrition.
The damaged joints must be eliminated by an excessive load.If possible, during treatment, it must be generally reduced to a minimum.
Following the established orthopedic regime.
Fisiotherapy exercises classes.
The passage of physiotherapy, which includes a magnet and electrotherapy, a shock wave and laser therapy.
Sanatorium treatment.To do this, it is necessary once a year, on the recommendation of a doctor, it undergoes a treatment of the course in specialized resorts.

Preparations for the treatment of arthrosis

Pharmacological treatment is carried out in the exacerbation phase of osteoarthritis, selected by a specialist.The self-media is unacceptable due to possible side effects (for example, the negative effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the gastric mucosa).

Therapy includes the purpose of these drugs:

Anti -inflammatory drugs.Starting osteoarthritis therapy is complete, you can slow down the course of the disease and largely improve the quality of life.It is worth living in more detailed way in some treatment points.In particular, drug therapy includes in the initial phase: this is the removal of pain, as well as the elimination of inflammatory processes that occur in the joints.For this, all doctors use non -pound -free anti -inflammatory drugs.Expert doctors do not recommend their oral use, since these drugs largely irritate the walls of the stomach.Therefore, depending on the chosen drug, intravenous or intramuscular administration is used.Sometimes as auxiliary means, fans are used in the form of ointments, but their absorption is extremely low, so it is not possible to obtain a significant effect.
Hormonal corticosteroids.When arthrosis is in the exacerbation phase, hormonal corticosteroids are recommended.Are inserted in the joint.Externally, you can use a special patch, ointment or tincture, which are made on the basis of the combustion of pepper.
The chondroprotectors aimed at restoring the cartilage and improving the high quality composition of the synovial fluid will not be superfluous.The course lasts a rather long period until the moment until the improvement occurs.However, if the expected effect does not appear for over half a year, drugs should be canceled.Even Intra -fast, together with chondroprotectors, is advisable to use drugs made on the basis of hyaluronic acid.They contribute to the formation of a cell membrane responsible for the formation of a cartilage of the joint.

Physiotherapy treatment

To stop pain, reduce inflammation, improve microcirculation and eliminate patient cramps with arthrosis, it is directed to physiotherapy:

In the exacerbation phase.Prescribe laser therapy, magnetotherapy and ultraviolet irradiation,
In the remission phase.Electrophoresis and sounds are shown.

In addition, thermal procedures, sulphide, radon and sea baths are used.To strengthen the muscles, electrical stimulation is carried out.A delicate massage can also be used in the remission phase.

Surgical treatment

With the ineffectiveness of these exposure methods, in the presence of complications, they resort to the surgical treatment of osteoarthritis:

Decompression of Metapifiz and prolonged intraxii blocks (decrease in the intraxious pressure in the affected area);
Corrective osteotomy;
Actoprophetics of the joints.

In the early stages of the disease, the mechanical, laser or cold debate is used (smoothing the surface of the damaged cartilage, the removal of non -vital areas).This method effectively interrupts pain syndrome, but has a temporary effect-2-3 years.

Popular remedies

Most people in our time do not want to take pills or make injections.Therefore, they are wondering: how to cure arthrosis with the help of popular remedies?For the most part, these funds aim to increase body tone, improve blood circulation, relieve pain and increase immunity.

For the treatment of this disease, these traditional medicine recipes are used:

The egg solution is prepared by the yolk of fresh eggs, which is mixed with terrible vinegar and apple cider in a ratio of 1: 1: 1. The liquid must be mixed thoroughly and grate it with the articulation affected all night.So you have to wrap everything with a wool scarf.It is recommended to rub for 1 month 2-3 times a week.
The pharmacy is purchased from the Eleasil root.As a rule, he faces packages of 50 g.For the preparation of the tincture, it will take half a package of vegetable roots and 150 ml of high quality vodka.The ingredients are mixed, placed in a dark bottle and insisted for 12 days.The rubbings are performed before bedtime and, if possible, in the morning.

The use of boiled oat flour also provides good results.Take three or four tablespoons of oatmeal, pour boiling water and cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes.The amount of water used should guarantee the reception of porridge often, which should be cooled and used as a compress at night.Use only recently boiled flakes.Yesterday's porridge is not suitable for the impact.
Birch leaves, nettle and inflorescence of calendula are taken in equal parts.As a result, two tablespoons must be obtained.We fold the chopped collection resulting in a Thermos, pour a liter of boiling water and leave it during the night.Starting next morning, it is necessary to take half a glass of decoction four to five times a day.The course of taking this recipe is two to three months.

Even the dyes of bay leaves, horseradish, garlic and rye are considered effective.The treatment of arthrosis with popular remedies will be the most effective if combine it with treatment with drugs.

Eating for arthrosis

The basic principles of arthrosis nutrition are reduced to the following points:

Do not eat heavy food for the night so as not to cause an arthrosis attack.
Eat fractionally.
Constantly monitor the weight, in order to avoid the increase in body weight,This means additional load on painful joints.
When there is no exacerbation of the disease, hiking after eating.
The menu must be balanced, completed with the attending physician.

There are absolutely no complaints about fish dishes: they can be used enough, of course, in reasonable quantities.

Do not forget the regular intake of vitamins with food.For arthrosis patients, vitamins B are particularly relevant
An important role in the treatment of arthrosis is assigned to cold man.This food will be a true warehouse of traces of elements for painful joints.The most important component in the cold is a collagen of natural origin.
Vitamin B will help the production of hemoglobin.It can be "obtained" by eating bananas, walnuts, cabbage and potatoes.It is worth being transported with vegetation and legumes.They will become a source of folic acid.The liver, mushrooms, dairy products -caseari and eggs will be useful.They are rich in riboflavin.

By observing the treatment regime prescribed by the doctor, it can be achieved that the disease withdraws and damaged tissues will begin to recover.

Prevention

The prevention of osteoarthritis begins with proper nutrition.It is necessary to try to reduce the consumption of salt, as well as food that can interrupt the metabolism.These include legumes, fatty meat, alcohol.The diet includes cabbage, vegetables and fish.

For the prevention of osteoarthritis, it is necessary to attend physical education lessons, make hot.If possible, it is better to pass several kilometers on foot.It is also important to monitor weight and prevent weight gain, since this will give an additional load on inflamed joints.It is not advisable to take pills to lose weight, as they can stop metabolism in the body.

Forecast

The forecast for life is favorable.The favorable social and work forecast depends on the timeliness of the diagnosis and the beginning of the treatment is reduced when the resolution of the question of the surgical treatment of the disease is tightened, if necessary.