What is the meniscus of the knee joint? Rupture of the meniscus of the knee joint: causes, symptoms, treatment

In this material, you will learn about the sensations and treatment of the rupture of the meniscus of the COP.

Content

The human body has more than 2 hundred bones. All of them are connected, become motionless, inactive or mobile. The knees are mobile joints, and therefore they are more often than other joints of the strongest load. There is a huge risk of various damage, injuries.

The joint of the knees consist of bones, a large number of ligaments, and formations. The composition of the knees also includes menisci, which are responsible for the shock absorption of the joints. Often, pain in the knees occur due to some pathologies. People who are not 40 years old complain about the disease of meniscus due to injuries. After this age, degenerative changes in the bone system begin to occur. But the most serious pathology is the rupture of the meniscus.

What is a meniscus?

Menisc - the formation of cartilage, which are necessary for:

Depreciation of the joint, lowering the load on it.
Increasing the surface of the bones in the joints. As a result, the load on the knees will decrease.
Stabilization of the work of knees.
Formation of the desired position of the lower joints.

In any knee is located 2 meniscus:

The outer is called lateral.
The internal is called medial.

In front of the menisci are attached to each other with the help of a transverse ligament. The transverse ligament is a bunch of connecting fibers. The meniscus, which is located inside, is also attached to the side with a ligament. At some injuries, the data of education tend to be damaged at the same time.

There are no vessels in meniscuses, but they receive food as follows:

Power penetrates into the lateral parts thanks to the vessels that are in the joint capsules.
In the internal zones due to the fact that synovial fluid is close to this place. It is from it that nutrient components penetrate that redirect into meniscus.

Three zones are distinguished:

Red. Located directly near the capsule. In case of injuries and tears of fabric, they begin to grow together themselves, since in this zone the blood supply occurs faster.
Intermediate. It is far from the capsule, therefore, the blood supply here is a little worse. As a result of this, the healing of menisci is more complicated. During injuries and violations in this location, surgical intervention is necessarily prescribed.
White. It is close to the central part of the joint. This zone has poor blood supply, few nutritious components penetrate here. Therefore, the meniscus is poorly resumed after an injury. In order to eliminate the problem, surgery is prescribed.

The reasons for the rupture of the meniscus of the knee joint

The most common reason due to which menisci is breaking is a trauma of knees. Damage is isolated, or occur with other internal injuries of the knee. Quite often, the second version of the injury leads to damage to the cross -shaped ligament, which is located in front of the knee. In approximately 50% of cases of rupture, fractures of condyles are found.

There are 2 types of meniscus rupture. Consider them in more detail.

Traumatic

It occurs, as a rule, due to indirect or combined injury. Often, due to this rupture, rotation of the lower leg occurs. Basically, the traumatic form occurs for the following reasons:

The knee is considered the main support joint.
Rotation mobility is carried out in the knee.
The knee is slightly bent.

Very often, damage occurs during forced extension of the leg or after a severe, complex injury. Many professional athletes often have repeated breaks of the joint, as a result of which a person begins to complain about meniscopathy (chronic damage). In the future, a meniscus can burst due to any sharp movement. For example, with unexpected squat or knee injuries.

The injuries are as follows:

Damage to the inner meniscus. It occurs due to the rupture of the ligaments, the rupture changed due to the pathology of the meniscus. Often damage occurs along the longitudinal axis, when the middle part of the meniscus is torn at the same time. Such a gap is called "watering streams." The front and rear horn are also often torn. Sometimes transverse breaks in the center of meniscus occur.
Damage to meniscus located outside. As a rule, it appears due to the rotation of the knee inside. For adults, this trauma is considered atypical, since the lateral meniscus has excellent mobility.

Degenerative

This type of gap is found in people whose age is from 45 years to 50 years. Often such a pathology appears due to a repeated small injury. The reasons can be: strong loads during training, excessive labor activity.

The causes of this type of gap is as follows:

Rheumatic fever or rheumatism. The second pathology often leads to inflammation of the shells of the heart, to the damage to large joints. Rheumatism can occur a couple of weeks after the appearance of a sore throat. Rheumatic fever occurs due to pathological changes in the joint capsule. As a result of this, periarticular tissues begin to swell, blood supply, degenerative changes occur.
Gout. This pathology is acute or chronic. Due to the ailment, uric acid in the joints occurs. These crystals, when they penetrate the joint, begin to provoke inflammation with severe pain. Sometimes inflammation during gout leads to an injury to meniscus, uric acid penetration into it.

Symptoms of rupture of the meniscus of the knee joint

During damage, two types of pathology are distinguished. After the joint injury, instant pain of a variety of intensity appears. The knee, at the same time, is very swollen. Pain can occur in the location of the gap, sometimes along the entire gap of the joint. The injured part of the knee interferes to some extent. It creates problems associated with the movement of the lower limb. If the injury is small, then the patient can be disturbed by sore clicks in the joint, the feeling of discomfort. If the injury is large, then the joint generally stops moving normally.

The injured meniscus, moving to the center of the knee, does not allow to move normally. Sometimes injury occurs in the area where there are many vessels. In this zone, blood accumulates, the ailment is called hemarthrosis. During the disease, the knee pad swells.
If the joint of the joint, located in front occurs, the knee is blocked, therefore, the patient cannot bend it. If the knee is injured by the appearance of the “Lack's handle”, then the patient can bend the joint only 15 degrees. During the injury of the rear horn, basically, the knee begins to bend poorly.
Pain is quite pronounced. The victim cannot step on the legs that are injured. Often this can be observed during a strong rupture or during the crushing of menisci, when a fracture of the epiphyse of the tibia occurs. It is worth noting that in some cases the pain almost does not cause discomfort, and therefore the patient can easily perform certain movements. For example, calmly descend from a hill or walk up the stairs.

As soon as the pain subsides, and the edema decreases, the pathology goes into a chronic form. Localized pain may occur, liquid will accumulate in the joint, inflammation will appear.

In order to detect a pathology, some tests can be made:

Baykov test. The patient bends the knee. Then the doctor runs his finger along the gap of the knee, the patient should bend his knee. If he feels pain, then the patient has a meniscus damaged.
Steiman test. During the bending of the joint, the patient begins the rotational movement in the lower leg. Does the patient feel pain? Then the meniscus was injured.
Test Chaklin. In order to detect meniscus injury, the patient lifts the straightened lower limb. When the break, there is a click in the meniscus area. In the second case, the patient should raise his straight leg and, if, the medial zone of the large muscle of the thigh is atrophied, and the tailor muscle was reduced, then there was a break.
Polyakova test. The patient should lie on his back, raise a healthy limb to the top. Raising the body, standing on the shoulder blades and heels, the patient, pulling the injured limb, feels pain, there is injury.

If the patient is not treated after the injury, this can lead to more serious health problems:

Arthrosis. During this disease, quickly washing cartilage.
The patient will begin to move little, passively bend the knees.
Absolute immobility of the knee. Due to this ailment, a person loses its entirely motor function.

As a result of these serious complications, the patient in the future awaits such a problem as disability.

Treatment of rupture of meniscus of the knee joint

Such a disease can be cured either by conservative treatment, or surgery. With the growth of various recent technologies, it was very popular to get meniscus transplantation. The following types of treatment of the disease are also very often used:

Conservative. It is used so that small tears of horns located in the back to heal faster. Similar injuries can be accompanied by pain. But, as a rule, cartilage fabric is not infringed, clicks and a sense of rolling do not occur. The treatment of the disease is as follows-the patient should stop any lesson, due to which the condition may aggravate. For old grandparents, this treatment can lead to positive results, since the pathology in this case occurs due to degenerative damage or arthritis.
During the damage, sewing can be used, which is done from the inside. For such a treatment, a fairly long needle is used. It is introduced by the bastard of the joint from the joint cavity out of the strong capsule zone, and the seams are applied tightly. This is considered the main advantage of the method, although, at the same time, vessels and nerves can be injured during the output of the needle from the joint cavity. This technique is suitable in order to eliminate the gap that can occur from cartilage to the rear horn. During the injury of horns, sometimes problems associated with the input of needles appear.
If the front horn is damaged, the doctors apply the seams, starting from the outside into the inside. This method does not pose danger to nerves and vessels. The needle is introduced through the gap on the outside of the joint, then it is inserted into the knee cavity.
Today, the method without the use of seams is very popular. The process lasts quickly, it does not use some complex technique. But today this method does not give a complete guarantee that the meniscus will completely heal.

Operation. It is prescribed in cases if there is a effusion and severe pain (if it is impossible to eliminate them, using ordinary drug treatment). Also, the operation can be prescribed during friction during movements or if the joint cannot move normally.
Previously, resection was the safest and most reliable treatment method. As recent studies show, in many cases this method can cause arthritis. This fact was able to influence the main methods of treatment. But at the moment, the method of removing a small section of damaged tissue began to use more and more. The method of polishing the parts that have been deformed is also used.
Chondroprotectors. With this method, the doctor is prescribed to the patient to drink special drugs that restore the structure of cartilage. Drugs can also be prescribed during damage to the cartilage knee. We note that chondroprotectors are drugs that help during injuries and degenerative damage to meniscus.