Aunt Lu, 70, had knee pain 20 years ago, and when she sought medical treatment at the local clinic, the doctor deduced that it was bone hyperplasia, prescribed some pain-relieving plasters, and told her to work less and rest more. Aunt Lu's two sons are both working outside the home, and the old two who stay at home can't stay idle, in addition to bringing grandchildren, they also do a lot of crops. In the past 20 years, Aunt Lu has been working → knee pain→ resting→ pain relief→ labor is constantly repeated, and knee pain is becoming more and more frequent and more difficult to treat!
Recently, Aunt Lu heard others say that the nearby town can be softened bone spur injections, so she asked a friend to go to the treatment together, a week of injections for a month, the initial effect is not bad, but slowly knee pain and come back, even almost can not stand up, why is this?
Is it true that < h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > needle softens bone spurs? </h1>
Let's first look at what Aunt Lu's softening bone spur needle is doing.
Aunt Lu has not been able to diagnose and treat her knee pain, and we cannot determine what kind of disease she has, but through the symptoms of up and down stair pain and motor pain, as well as knee varus deformity (O-leg), it can be speculated that it is most likely knee osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis is one of the typical features of knee osteoarthritis.
With the increase of age, the degeneration of the knee cartilage of the elderly accumulates to a certain extent, and it is easy to wear and tear under the action of external forces, and the decline in muscle strength and bone strength in the elderly will increase the probability of cartilage wear, so after the age of 60, it is the high incidence age of knee osteoarthritis.
In the degenerated knee joint, the wear and tear of the joint cartilage will lead to the destruction of the mechanical balance of the joint, at this time, in order to restore the balance of the joint, the body will produce compensatory hyperplasia on the periphery of the joint surface, which is often called bone spur, which is the process of bone hyperplasia. Therefore, bone hyperplasia can actually be seen as a kind of self-repair of the human body, and only when the hyperplastic bone spurs cause harmful stimulation to the surrounding synovial membrane, subchondral bone, and periosteum, can it be seen as a pathological change.
Therefore, osteoporosis is not the focus of treatment for knee osteoarthritis, and naturally there is no softening of bone spurs!
And, can bone spurs soften? Not!
Hypertrophic bone spurs are actually not much different from normal bones in structure, if the drugs that Aunt Lu injects into the joint cavity can soften the bone spurs, then it will also dissolve the normal bone, and what about treatment? Therefore, there is no drug that can soften the bone spurs, whether it is oral or injectable drugs to soften the bone spurs, it is a lie!
So, what exactly is the drug that Aunt Wang injected into the knee joint? We speculate that it is a hormone!
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > glucocorticoid injections are not to be abused! </h1>
After Aunt Lu received the injection treatment, the joint pain was relieved within a few hours, and during the continuous treatment, the joint pain was well controlled, but after stopping the treatment, the pain quickly returned, even more serious than before the treatment, and could not stand up for a while!
Aunt Lu's treatment is likely to be glucocorticoids, that is, closed therapy!
In patients with knee osteoarthritis, cartilage fragments or bone spurs can cause nociceptive irritation to the synovial membrane of the knee joint, leading to an onset of synovial inflammation. In the process of inflammatory response, there are many inflammatory mediators involved, including prostaglandins, glucocorticoids can achieve swelling and analgesic effect by blocking the synthesis of glucocorticoids.
However, glucocorticoids are not routine drugs for osteoarthritis swelling and pain relief, for patients with joint pain but synovial inflammation is not obvious, acetaminophen can be used orally for pain relief, for patients with less severe inflammation and pain, external nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to relieve pain, and when the effect of external medication is not good, then oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be used to relieve pain.
And glucocorticoids are only a supplementary pain relief method and cannot be used frequently!
First of all, the use of glucocorticoids in osteoarthritis is mainly based on injection administration, if frequently closed, the first will face the risk of puncture treatment, the more punctures, the greater the risk of infection and damage to the joint.
Secondly, glucocorticoids have many toxic side effects, such as central obesity, hypertension, intracranial hypertension, rash, full moon face, buffalo back, osteoporosis, ischemic osteonecrosis, etc. Even if not taken orally, frequent closure will increase the risk of these adverse reactions.
Finally, although glucocorticoids can quickly reduce swelling and relieve pain, but can not prevent osteoarthritis on the erosion of joints, long-term use of a large number of glucocorticoids, but will aggravate the destruction of joint cartilage and bone, so that the patient's condition worsened, which is the reason why Aunt Lu finally could not stand up.
Can I use local hormone injections to treat osteoarthritis? Yes, but to meet the indications, when the patient's oral medication effect is not good or joint inflammation is severe, closed treatment can be used to assist in anti-inflammatory and pain relief, but can not rely on this therapy, clinically advocate no more than 4 times a year, every 2 times an interval of not less than 3 months, to avoid the occurrence of adverse reactions.
Therefore, closure is not a shortcut to the treatment of knee osteoarthritis, in fact, knee osteoarthritis, a chronic degenerative disease, there is no treatment shortcut, patients need to do a good job of action support and exercise protection, to avoid further wear and tear of joint cartilage, while rational use of drug treatment to relieve pain and other symptoms, comprehensive treatment to delay or prevent the development of the disease!
I hope that this article is helpful to patients with knee osteoarthritis, correctly use closure treatment, and try to avoid possible misunderstandings in osteoarthritis treatment!