How well do you climb up the stairs? Do you have to use the handrails? You still play soccer on Sundays, but don’t even make it through half time? Is it hard for you to get out of your car? How well do you walk after playing with your children on the floor? … The music was nice for dancing, until your knee clicked, right?… I don’t get to see you in B.K.B and Volleyball practice. Is it because your knees get swollen?… I am sorry for your shopping trip to Miami, You didn’t get to walk much, right?
All different daily activities and sports create a lot of stress around our body joints, causing them to get injured due to overweight, friction, traumas, sports, physical effort, etc. In between body joints are structures and anatomic components that when damaged or swollen produce joint alterations giving you occasional pain or even continuous pain if the original injury is not treated properly.
Arthroscopy allows us to accurately diagnose and give immediate treatment to most joint injuries; it also serves us to obtain the most authentic information about a joint condition, its function level, the state of the cartilage, and most important, it helps us to choose the right treatment in order to return the joint to its natural state and function.
Let’s see some joint injuries cases diagnosed and treated through arthroscopy. This injuries may develop in many ways, but one who has a joint condition knows and feels “something is just not right” with his knee, shoulder, ankle, etc. and should take care of his condition before the joint damage gets bigger and irreversible.
Synovitis Is the medical term for inflammation of a synovial membrane. There are synovial membranes in the hip, knee, wrist, shoulder and ankle joints, and synovitis can occur in any of them, but the knee is most commonly affected. The condition is usually painful, particularly when the joint is in movement. The joint usually swells due to fluid collection.
Joint and Meniscus Injury. A tear in any joint can produce several injuries around the joint. Sprains of the external (medial and lateral collateral), or internal (anterior and posterior cruciate) ligaments or injuries of the menisci commonly result from knee trauma. Symptoms include pain, effusion, instability with severe sprains, and locking with some meniscal injuries. There is permanent fear and instability when it comes to practicing any sport or physical activity due to pain and swelling.
Arthritis and Arthrosis. Our elderly people and those who have worked hard to maintain and sustain a family often suffer from hip pain and knee pain. The pain usually starts on one knee first, then due to overweight the pain continues on the other knee. Symptoms of arthritis include pain and limited function of joints, characterized by joint stiffness, swelling, redness, and warmth. Many people experience some difficulty functioning at home, at work or at play because of joint pain, stiffness and loss of motion. Getting out of bed in the morning, walking, climbing stairs, arising from a chair may all be impaired to some degree by arthritis pain and joint stiffness. These symptoms may be an indication of meniscus tear or an Articular Cartilage Injury, which is the common cause. It gets treated through surface replacement: the old worn out surfaces get replaced for resistant and durable surfaces allowing an immediate recovery to an active and painless life.
Ankle Synovitis. People often suffer from ankle sprains, and live with the pain through weeks or even months. The pain and inflammation persists causing difficulty to resume physical activity or even walk. From the outside the ankle looks fine, but it keeps them from any physical and sport activity.
As we mentioned, this are only a few joint injuries cases with their most frequent symptoms.
