Typical osteoarthritis symptoms are joint pain. They occur initially only under stress, later also during normal movements and ultimately also at rest. At the beginning of the disease, there are no symptoms at all. Later, more arthritis symptoms are added to the pain. They can differ individually and are also dependent on the affected joint. Here you read everything important about osteoarthritis symptoms.
Osteoarthritis symptoms: General
Most often, the arthritis symptoms are limited to one or a few joints. Often sufferers are free of complaints for many years, although it is already possible to detect clear signs of illness on the x-ray. An exception is traumatic events, which can often cause pronounced osteoarthritis symptoms in a short time.
Typically, sufferers suffer from the typical arthritis pain. They develop over a longer period of time from initial stressful pain through movement pain to rest pain.
Other osteoarthritis symptoms may be added. However, they differ to some extent strongly between the patients. Some complain that they can only move their joints to a limited extent. In others, the joint swells strongly or causes morbid noises with every movement.
Osteoarthritis Symptoms: Stress Pain & Co.
Stress pain is often the first symptoms of joint wear and tear. At first, arthrosis pain usually occurs only after unusual activities. In a poorly trained person this can be a shorter run. The hauling of a box during a move or an unusual mountain hike also puts more strain on the joints than normally. Then a beginning arthritis can trigger symptoms.
If the disease progresses, even more everyday stress causes symptoms. Osteoarthritis patients often can not pinpoint or characterize the pain at this stage of the disease. Mostly it is perceived as disturbing, but hardly restricts the daily activities.
Sufferers often find their diseased joints stiff, as if the “sinews were too short”. The arthrosis symptoms can spread to the surrounding muscles – Affected feel then there or in the approach of the tendons a stress pain. Accompanying this, the joint may swell or be restrictedly mobile.
At this stage of the disease, the symptoms of osteoarthritis often occur in phases. Mostly they can be assigned to stronger requirements and disappear spontaneously. In some patients, the symptoms of arthrosis worsen due to the weather, especially in cold or wet weather.
Osteoarthritis symptoms: motion pain
As the disease progresses, the arthritis pain also increases and occurs more frequently. Often sufferers can already predict in what activities they will be plagued again. Thus, the stress pain becomes a pain of movement. Typically, the pain occurs when those affected after prolonged sitting or lying up again (pain onset). After a few steps, this pain usually disappears.
Only with longer loads, he stops again and is then often associated with the feeling that the muscles are tired (fatigue pain). In some patients, only extreme movements, such as hyperextension, hurt. Affected then avoid these movements, so that osteoarthritis symptoms do not even noticeable. Often a restraint is taken. Already limp is, for example, one of the typical symptoms of coxarthrosis.
Osteoarthritis Symptoms: Resting pain
Only in late stages of the disease does the pain of rest occur. He is sometimes perceived as a chronic pain. Especially at night, he tortures those affected and steals their sleep. The cause of this rest pain is often an articular effusion. The skin of the joint becomes irritated thereby and inflames in some cases.
Frequently changes in this disease phase, the joint position. Existing misalignments such as O or X legs can become more pronounced and aggravate the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Even an increasingly stiff spine can severely limit the quality of life.
Osteoarthritis symptoms in the late stages
A progressive arthritis and associated malpositions change the joint structure. The muscles are no longer working together properly and can not compensate for further stress. The joint capsule shrinks. Both ultimately leads to the fact that affected joints can only be moved to a limited extent. Some stiffen in a pathological position (contracture). Separated cartilage parts can enter the joint space and suddenly block movement. The joint becomes unstable, can suddenly buckle (Giving-Way phenomenon) and thereby cause einschießende severe arthritis pain.
Audible arthritis symptoms are referred to as crepitus. They arise when the joint is so severely worn that it can no longer be smoothly guided. One can then perceive fine and coarse-grained rubbing noises or pops. Initially, these crepitations are only palpable and not necessarily associated with other ailments or in need of therapy.
Osteoarthritis symptoms
A gonarthrosis is an arthrosis in the knee. Symptoms are similar to the symptoms described above. If the gonarthosis symptoms occur in passive movements (without muscle work), the lesion usually lies in the joint. On the other hand, if osteoarthritis causes knee symptoms rather during active movement, the muscles, tendons or joint capsule are frequently affected (periarthrosis). Mostly, sufferers can bend their knees only to a limited extent. Later, the knee extension is impaired. The latter, however, hinders patients much more: People who can only bend their knee by 90 degrees usually tolerate this quite well. However, if they can stretch the knee 20 degrees less, this is felt to be much more stressful.
If the gonarthrosis symptoms last longer, the thigh muscles are less trained. Especially the leg extension becomes thinner (tissue loss = atrophy). As a result, the articular cartilage is poorly supplied with nutrients; This promotes osteoarthritis. Knee symptoms deteriorate even faster than osteoarthritis symptoms on other joints.
Coxarthrose symptoms
Osteoarthritis in the hip refers to physicians as coxarthrosis. Symptoms are similar to the general osteoarthritis symptoms described above. People often notice movement restrictions when they tie their shoes or put on stockings. Particularly typical is the discharge limping. In doing so, the patients stay shorter on the injured leg during the movement sequence. In addition, the affected hip joint is often turned outwards so that the toe tip points outwards. Swollen, blocked or unstable, the hip joint is not in a coxarthrosis. Many sufferers also report pressure pain in the groin and on the outer thigh of the thigh. A doctor quickly identifies these symptoms as being from the hip joint Osteoarthritis symptoms.