What is osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritis and degenerative joint disease that causes deformation and loss of the cartilage in the joint. Cartilage is a very special tissue with the thickness of 2-3 mm, which covers the ends of the bones forming joints and ensures perfect sliding of the bones on each other and our inborn cartilages does not have the ability to renew themselves and if they are damages, a progressive process starts. In case of osteoarthritis, generalized deformation and exposure of bonny tissue are in question, which mean that the joint losing its ability to slide smoothly, becomes moving with pain and difficulty. In later stages, as the result of movement limitations, bonny tissues called osteophytes (calcification) formed on the edges of the bones, which limit the movement of the joint more and more. This situation limits the person's movements, captures its freedom and causes gaining weight.

What are the reasons of knee osteoarthritis?

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Basic reason of osteoarthritis is unknown but risk of developing osteoarthritis is effected by many factors such as age, sex and genetic characteristics. Other factors may be as follows:
 

• Previous knee ligament injuries
• Meniscus tear
• Exposure of the knees to excessive and repeated loads.
• Leg curvature
• Being overweight• Exercise and sportive activities challenging knee joint excessively

What are the symptoms of Osteoarthritis disease seen in the knee?
 

Putting aside the fact that perception of pain by people having knee cartilage problems is in very different levels, symptoms of knee osteoarthritis are as follows:
 

• Pain while walking, climbing up stairs, sitting-standing, in short using our knees
• Painful difficulty of movement while standing up after sitting for a while
• Knee pain while getting out of bed in the mornings
•Swelling at the knee
• Feeling or hearing crackle during the knee movement
• Tripping happening time to time at the knee
 

How is osteoarthritis treated?

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Prosthesis surgery should not be the first option in osteoarthritis treatment. Before the prosthesis surgery, we recommend patients to lose weight in order to reduce the load on their knees, modify their activities and use shows with soft soles. Use of analgesic medication and local ointment in a manner that does not bring load to gastrointestinal system and kidneys, in-knee injections, physical treatment application, making good leg curvatures if any, are other treatment options.
 

If your bones are seen contacting each other in the knee x-rays taken or at least one of the following is observed in you despite of all treatments made:
 

• you cannot walk for 100 meters.
• you feel use of painkiller every day.
• you have sleeping disorders due to you knee pains at night.
• Curvature at you knee joint does not deform your movement bur affect adjacent joints.
• You are not self-sufficient in you daily life and seek for help.

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They the time for you to have a prosthesis surgery done may come.
 

Most commonly made knee surgery for osteoarthritis is total knee replacement (total knee prosthesis). In this surgery, deformed surfaces as well as bonny tissues with the volume equal to the volume of the prosthesis to be placed are removed from the ends of femur and tibia bones forming the knee joint and endo-prosthesis is placed at their place. Generally both cruciate ligaments are removed during the application of this prosthesis made of metal and plastic. Total knee prosthesis, which is one of the important and happy-ending treatments of knee osteoarthritis, may not always be the best solution.
 

Knee joint has 3 compartments which are the medial, lateral and knee cap compartments. Sometime one, sometime two and sometime three of these compartments may be damaged. If osteoarthritis exists in all these three compartments, then total prosthesis is the most appropriate solution. However, application of partial prosthesis at one or two compartment involvement must be preferred in terms of providing a more natural knee joint. Because during these surgeries, less bone incision is made while protecting ligaments with a smaller skin incision. However, technical difficulties in partial prosthesis application are more than total prosthesis applications. In order to minimize possible technical errors, Robotic Knee Surgery may be a more appropriate solution in partial knee prosthesis applications.