Knee bone cracking when walking

If you feel your kneecaps crackling when walking, you should go to the hospital for an MRI. This situation may be caused by physiological conditions or disease reasons. For example, osteoarthritis can easily cause such symptoms. This is also a degenerative disease, which is closely related to the patient's age, knee strain and congenital factors.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease

It is a degenerative damage to the articular cartilage, reactive hyperplasia of the joint margin and subchondral bone caused by many factors such as aging, obesity, strain, trauma, congenital joint abnormalities, joint deformities, etc. It is also called osteoarthritis, degenerative arthritis, senile arthritis, hypertrophic arthritis, etc. The clinical manifestations include slowly developing joint pain, tenderness, stiffness, joint swelling, limited movement and joint deformity.

Causes

Depending on the presence or absence of local and systemic pathogenic factors, osteoarthritis is divided into two categories: primary and secondary. 1. Secondary osteoarthritis (1) Mechanical or anatomical abnormalities: abnormal development of the hip joint, slipped capital femoral epiphysis, femoral neck abnormalities, multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, old fractures, meniscectomy, joint replacement, acute or chronic injuries. (2) Inflammatory joint diseases: suppurative arthritis, osteomyelitis, tuberculous arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, seronegative spondyloarthropathy, Behcet's syndrome, and Paget's disease. (3) Metabolic abnormalities: gout, Gaucher's disease, diabetes, progressive hepatolenticular degeneration, chondrocalcinosis, and hydroxyapatite crystals. (4) Endocrine abnormalities: acromegaly, sex hormone abnormalities, hyperparathyroidism, hypothyroidism with myxedema, and adrenal cortex hyperfunction. (5) Neurological defects: peripheral neuritis, syringomyelia, and Charcot arthropathy.

Clinical manifestations

The main symptom is joint pain, which often occurs in the morning. The pain is relieved after activity, but the pain may worsen if there is too much activity. Another symptom is joint stiffness, which often occurs when you wake up in the morning or after the joints have been in a certain position for a long time during the day. Examination of the affected joints may reveal joint swelling and tenderness, and a friction or "clicking" sound during movement. In severe cases, muscle atrophy and joint deformities may occur.