What are the symptoms of patellar inflammation?

The patella is a relatively important bone in the lower body and has a strong supporting effect on people's athletic ability. Therefore, if the patella is affected by disease, it will directly affect people's athletic ability. Teenagers are a high-risk group for patellar diseases. Diseases mainly caused by patellar inflammation have caused many teenagers to lose their athletic talents. Let's take a look at the symptoms of patellar inflammation. I hope everyone can understand it.

Clinical manifestations:

It can occur in any age group, and is more common in athletes and middle-aged and elderly female patients. The so-called "growing pains" suffered by many children are often related to this disease. In the early stages, adolescents experience pain in the front of the knee, which improves after rest. As the disease progresses, the pain lasts longer than it eases and worsens when going downstairs. In severe cases, they often need to go down the stairs sideways. They often become suddenly weak and fall when going downstairs or walking, commonly known as "weak legs". The knee joints are afraid of cold, and the knee joints may swell and accumulate fluid repeatedly, which is often misdiagnosed as "rheumatism." As the disease progresses and worsens, squatting becomes difficult and there is pain at night, which affects sleep and normal life. In the late stage, due to severe wear and tear, the knee joint cannot be fully straightened, and joint effusion and loose bodies may appear in the joint cavity, causing intra-articular locking and sudden jamming of the joint.

treat:

1. Non-surgical treatment

(1) Drug treatment includes Celebrex, Voltaren, Tylenol, etc. However, drugs only relieve pain and do not cure the disease because the root cause of the disease - the wear of the medial head of the quadriceps femoris and the patella continues. When it reaches a certain level, the drug is no longer effective and surgery is the only option.

(2) Physical therapy: Knee extension and tensioning exercises as shown by the arrows in Figure 4. (For those who cannot straighten their knees, add a 5-6 kg sandbag to the knee joint to provide pressure.) But it cannot exercise and strengthen the medial head of the quadriceps alone, it can only be used as an auxiliary treatment method. Specific steps: place a 5-6 catties sandbag (heated or unheated) on your knees, bend your knees 30 degrees, (because when you bend your knees 30 degrees, the exercise mainly strengthens the medial head of the quadriceps), then push down hard for 5 seconds, relax, rest for 5 to 6 seconds, and repeat the next time. Practice 2 or 3 times a day, each time for half an hour.

2. Surgery

The purpose of surgical treatment is to overcome the lateral tilt or subluxation of the patella and try to fundamentally eliminate the cause of patellar chondromalacia.

(1) The lateral side of the knee support band is loosened and the medial side is overlapped and sutured.

(2) Ligament transfer method.

(3) Tibial tuberosity medialization or osteotomy. These methods, which have been used for decades, have been abandoned due to the large incisions and surgical trauma. Artificial patellar joint surface replacement has a certain effect in treating simple severe patellofemoral arthritis.