Arthropathy is a degenerative disease of cartilage tissue that can affect the joints of the vertebrae and all bones of the bones. The hip joint (HJ) is the largest and most stressed bone joint. Therefore, hip joint disease (hip deformity arthropathy) is a common cause of disability in patients over 50 years of age.
Hip arthropathy (hip arthropathy): symptoms
reason
There are many causes of hip joint disease. This pathology can lead to:
- Age-related malnutrition changes in cartilage.
- Over the years, athletes have continued to exercise and carry weights.
- Congenital dysplasia.
- Hip joint injury.
- Necrosis of the femoral head (Perthes disease).
The femoral head is covered with elastic cartilage and is located in the acetabulum of the pelvis.
There are unilateral lesions (when the disease affects one joint) and bilateral-both joints are damaged on the hip joint surface.
Symptoms of hip joint disease
After the diagnosis, the following symptoms of hip joint disease can be observed:
- The cartilage becomes thin, dry and rough.
- The underlying bones are thickened and grow to the sides.
- Fibrosis and inflammation of the joint capsule.
- Inflammatory exudate appeared in the sac.
- The joints are stiff and contractures occur.
On the surface, these changes are manifested as the following symptoms:
- Joint pain radiates to the groin, hips and knees.
- The initial (morning) pain symptoms disappeared after warming up.
- Gait is restricted, uncertain, and limp.
- By shortening the leg on the painful side (caused by contracture).
- The femoral muscles weaken and shrink.
- There was a crackling sound at the joints.
Stage of disease
According to the signs and symptoms, the disease can be divided into three stages:
first
- The discomfort and pain usually disappear with rest.
- No external symptoms-limp, stiffness, atrophy.
Such signs are not particularly alert to patients. Few people pay attention to paroxysmal pain and are more able to receive treatment.
But it is in the early stage that arthropathy of the hip is still a reversible disease.
Second degree
- The pain symptoms become more intense and persist even when resting.
- The features of TBS are declining:
- Limited hip abduction and internal rotation
- Lameness observed
- X-ray record:
- Marginal osteophytes;
- Head deformation and contour changes;
- Reduce joint space.
The third stage
- The pain became permanent, and the most unbearable night pain began.
- The patient was forced to lean on crutches.
- The hips, femurs and leg muscles are severely restricted and restricted in movement.
- The leg shortening and limp are obvious.
- Due to the overgrowth of osteophytes, the joint space almost disappears, and the hip joint function fusion and complete loss occur.
It happened that the first attack occurred at a fairly young age-forty years old. A person is likely to forget it, and remember it at the age of 50-60, when joint deformities became obvious and affected the quality of life.
diagnosis
Perform X-ray and functional diagnosis. The orthopedic surgeon not only has to interpret the image, but also rotate and bend the femur in all directions to study the symptoms that appear when walking.
However, in more and more cases, if a patient is suspected of having hip joint disease, authoritative experts will refer to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosis. The explanation for this is the absolute security and high information content of the program. An MRI examination allows you to identify the smallest changes in the hip joint at an early stage, which helps to develop the most effective treatment strategy.
Treatment of hip joint disease
Treatment is carried out in accordance with the principle of "the sooner the better".
Early hip joint disease can be treated in the following ways:
- Cartilage protective agent.
- Promote physical therapy-swimming, aerobics, walking and cycling.
- Adjust the allowable physical load of the joint.
- Weight correction (downward).
- Physiotherapy treatment
- Exhaust procedures.
- Massage session.
- Compress the painful area.
The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can relieve pain symptoms.
The annual spa treatments are also very effective.
Intra-articular injection of corticosteroids can relieve pain to treat more severe pain in the later stage.
Due to the complete resection of the hip joint, the treatment of advanced hip joint disease is very difficult. In this case, chondroprotective agents are absolutely useless.
Any topical medicine in the form of ointments and gels can relieve muscle cramps and pain, but of course, they will not affect the condition of the diseased joint in any way. Therefore, you need to treat all kinds of advertisements wisely and make sure that after applying ointment to the painful area, you will soon forget the disease.
Hip replacement
The only option to fully restore the hip joint in the third stage of hip joint disease is surgery-atroplasty.
The endoprosthesis is represented by two parts: the head and the cup.
This operation is not easy:
- It takes a long period of recovery after the operation.
- The implantation of the joint is painful (pain can last for a year).
- You will have to walk for a while with the help of a walker or using a cane as a support.