12/06/2021
✅ PHYSIO IN KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS.
Physiotherapy has become an important part of health care. Since its inception, the numerous approaches applied in the management of ailments have yielded little to no adverse effects.
One of the conditions physiotherapy can help manage is knee Osteoarthritis.Knee Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition.
It occurs when the cushion at the knee joint known as articular cartilage wears out or degenerates.
The knee joint is one of the most weight bearing Joints. It is formed by two big bones; femoral and tibial bones. There is a cartilage and meniscus on the femoral and tibial bone respectively providing cushion at the bony surface, preventing direct bony contacts. In knee osteoarthritis, this cartilage gradually wears out leading to direct bony contact and consequently lead to excessive pains, stiffness and weakness in the knee joint.
Most Physiotherapy approaches which are utilized in the management of knee osteoarthritis will not cause regeneration of the worn out articular cartilage.The rate at which the cartilage degenerates, will be minimized. Furthermore, most of the approaches help minimize pt pains, and restore ample strength that largely provides stability in the joint. This by large contributes to the possibility of reduced cartilage degeneration.
➡️PAIN MANAGEMENT
Managing pain associated with knee Osteoarthritis is an important part of making the individual active as much as possible.
There are established ways Physiotherapy can help you manage your knee pains not limited to exercise prescription. The use of modalities such as cold and heat packs, Infrared radiation, shortwave diathermy may be helpful in managing your pains.
Clinically, it is always safer to use cold therapy for acute pains and heat therapy for chronic pains. Usually, acute pains have lasted for about few days to few weeks whilst Chronic Pains have lasted more than 3 months to years. Figure 8.
Exercises are also helpful in pain management. When you perform an exercise,the body releases natural pain Killers called enkephalin which help minimize pain. Most of these Exercises pt with knee osteoarthritis can perform can be revised from the attached images. Largely, some of these Exercises help promote strength in the surrounding muscles like Quadriceps and hamstrings so that they provide stability in the joint during activities.
This will help reduces the rate at which the cartilage degenerates.
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