What is Arthritis | Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment

In today’s fastest-growing era joint pain is a new normal irrespective of age and gender. Facts say that around one out of five people have chronic pain caused due to arthritis and as a matter of fact more than half are unaware of the reason behind their pain. Usually, people ignore chronic pains and wait till they heal naturally or take a pain killer to heal joint pains. However, they do not consider consulting orthopedics specialists which increase the problem and turns into a long term disease like arthritis or arthralgia.

One cannot tell if it is a joint, tendon, pain in the area of the joint it can only be evaluated and analyzed by orthopedics specialists. We all face creaky joints, achy joints, or twinge in the knee but we consider it as not a big deal because we assume it’s happening due to aging and can't be treated. Although we have several pain management techniques including exercise, medication, and joint replacement surgery but these can only be found out when we ask a question ‘why it is happening?’.

What is Arthritis?

Arthritis is also known as ‘inflammation of a joint’ which cover bones, when two bones meet it becomes joints and inflammation of those bones causes arthritis. Arthritis consists of various types but the most common among them are osteoarthritis arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis is associated with damage in cartilage that is a soft tissue between the joints which breaks down and causes osteoarthritis disease, on the other side rheumatoid arthritis is a autoimmune disease that means when immune system stops responding as it used to do earlier and it starts invading the joints and bones as if they are bacteria or enemy.

Symptoms of arthritis:-

Arthritis symptoms can include a broad spectrum like joint pain, stiffness, and strain problem in tendons, muscles, ligaments, and bones.

Joint Pain:

Joint pain consists of various causes, and its treatment varies on the cause or seriousness. For a lot of people, it's due to some or the other kind of arthritis (joint inflammation). For others, such as those with fibromyalgia or an underactive thyroid, pain occurs with no underlying damage or inflammation.

Causes of joint pain include:

Adult Still's disease
Ankylosing spondylitis
Avuncular necrosis (death of bone tissue due to limited blood flow)
Bone cancer
Broken bone
Bursitis (joint inflammation)

Joint Stiffness:

Joint stiffness is the sensation of difficulty moving a joint or the apparent loss of range of motion of a joint. Joint stiffness often accompanies joint pain and/or swelling. Depending on the cause of joint stiffness, joint redness, tenderness, warmth, tingling, or numbness of an affected area of the body may be present.

Symptoms & Signs: -

Hip Pain
Joint Pain
Knee Pain

Causes of joint stiffness: -

Bone Tumor

Cartilage Tear

Synovial Sarcoma

Trauma or Injury

Other Symptoms of Arthritis:

Numbness and tingling
Fever
Minor joint swelling
Fatigue
General weakness or a feeling of malaise
Dry mouth
Dry, itchy, or inflamed eyes
Eye discharge
Difficulty sleeping
Chest pain when you breathe
Hard bumps of tissue under the skin on your arms
Loss of appetite
Weight Loss

Treatment of Arthritis:-

The symptoms of Arthritis can be managed by following a regime of painkillers, corticosteroids, non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAD), Counter irritants, Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARD), and biological response modifiers. Patients suffering from arthritis can choose to turn towards therapy to help improve the movement in joints. There are surgical options available like joint repair, joint replacement, and joint fusion that the patient could opt for when considering treatment options.

Some common Type of Orthopedic Surgeries

Arthroscopy is performed to treat problems occurring inside the joint using an arthroscope.
Soft tissue repair, for torn ligaments and tendons.
Joint replacement, where a damaged joint is replaced with prosthesis.
Revision joint surgery, in which a preexistent implant needs to be changed with a new one.
Bone fracture repair includes internal fixation, performed when pieces of bones are repositioned using metal plates, screws or pins.
Debridement, which damaged soft tissues or bones are removed.
Fusion of bones, where bones are fused with grafts
Spine fusion,in which the spinal bones (vertebrae) are joined together.
Osteotomy helps in correcting bone deformities.

Various modalities utilized by physiotherapists for treating osteoarthritis include

Exercises
Massages
Providing patients with walking aids
Electrotherapy

Physiotherapy as a treatment approach in Knee Osteoarthritis includes:

Hydrotherapy: It utilizes water to treat arthritis. Specialized exercises are performed inside water with a temperature range of 33-36 °C . Physiotherapists guide the patients with specific exercises such as stretching, aerobics, and strengthening exercises.
Manual therapy is another approach wherein physiotherapists use hands-on techniques to relieve pain and stiffness. This technique has shown immense benefits in treating knee osteoarthritis.
Other approaches such as acupuncture (dry needling) and thermotherapy have also shown great benefits in relieving pain.

Conclusion

If you too are suffering from joint pain, arthritis at any age irrespective of gender, then you must visit at Nav Imperial Hospital Jaipur, India. One of the best joint replacement / arthritis Hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan where you are provided with the utmost care as we render personalized care to patients. Our orthopedic specialist Dr. Sachin Gupta is a renowned and trusted joint specialist in Jaipur who has performed several orthopedic surgeries successfully. We understand the pain you must be suffering from; we have handled it before you just need to trust on us.