Treating a Degenerative Knee Condition - The Problem That Can Make You Want to Give Up

Are your knee(s) painful?

While osteoarthritis or degenerative knee conditions are not always an emergency condition, it is a severe condition that can cause debilitating pain and gets progressively worse over a period of time. In a worse case scenario, the joint can get severely deformed as alignment problems advance and can eventually cause someone to lose the ability to walk.

A.) Symptoms of A Degenerative Knee Condition

The symptoms of degenerative knee condition include:

1.) Pain in the knee when moving or standing still

2.) Stiffness in the knee joint

3.) Swelling around the knee

These symptoms usually bring the person who is suffering from osteoarthritis to the doctor as the pain worsens and their mobility gets increasingly more restricted.

B.) Diagnosing A Degenerative Knee Condition

Your doctor will confirm that you have osteoarthritis only after examining an X-Ray of the knees. A doctor will rarely make a clinical diagnosis of this condition as the symptoms can also mirror other conditions. Once the diagnosis is complete, you can then discuss treatment options with your physician.

C.) Treatment for A Degenerative Knee Condition

Treatment for this disease can range from over the counter pain medication to wearing a knee brace during flare-ups to getting actual knee replacement. The treatment depends upon the health of the individual, their age and the progression of the condition.

• Cortisone Injections: While cortisone shots are effective for relieving the pain, their effects are not long lasting. With these shots, you can expect to get relief from pain for anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. These shots can also be expensive and will require regular visits to the doctor administering the shots.

• Knee Surgery: Knee surgery is usually considered the last resort and is only recommended for those who have a severe case and for whom the success rate is potentially high. Surgery, which entails rebuilding the knee joint, is an invasive procedure. It can be very expensive and also takes months from which to recover. Rehabilitation will be a large part of recovery and can be indefinite, causing another dent in your finances. You should discuss this option thoroughly with your doctor and weight the risks as well as the benefits before opting to undergo full knee surgery to treat your degenerative knee condition.

• Knee Braces: Using a knee brace is the least invasive way to treat the condition. Let's face it, sometimes you need surgery, but these braces can be the one thing that helps take away your pain like no other! When you take your knee stability to the next level, you can feel relief as soon as the brace wraps snugly around the knee. Many people find this the preferred treatment option as it offers them relief from pain without hampering their mobility as they go about their daily tasks.

If you are concerned that you may have degenerative knee condition, you should seek a firm diagnosis from your doctor. While this is an incurable condition, there are millions of people who suffer from this type of chronic inflammation and who treat it with the use of over the counter pain pills and by wearing a knee brace.