Signs and Symptoms Of Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is condition occurring in bone joints. While rheumatoid arthritis and other systemic conditions like lupus occur as results of other types of arthritis, Osteoarthritis in spite of being part of arthritis only occurs in joints and spares other parts of body.
The joints, affected by osteoarthritis turn painful with repetitive use thus showing the most common signs of this condition. The pain usually aggravates after sometime, leading to swelling and warmth. The affected joints also become creaked because of persistent pain.
Even prolonged and continuous inactivity such as sitting in a cinema hall may make the affected joints stiff. In severe cases the cartilage cushion is lost altogether, resulting in friction between bones making it painful for the patient to move from one place to other.
Signs and symptoms, however, depend upon conditions of individuals. While in some cases the condition may be quite debilitating, in others symptoms may be few even after degeneration takes place in joints as may be detected through X-rays.
Symptoms may also appear intermittently. At times an osteoarthritis patient can have painless finger and knee joints.
Too much of weight of upper portion of body due to obesity or continuous injury may cause osteoarthritis of the knees. The upper portion of body may also become weighty due to joint surgery resulting in knee osteoarthritis.
The knees can become deformed because of progressive cartilage degeneration in its joints. Sometimes the condition makes the knee appear like an outward curvature.
If osteoarthritis affects the weight-bearing joints such as in knees it cam result in development of limp which can aggravate with further degeneration of cartilage.
In some cases medications or other conservative methods of treatment cannot provide relief from pain, limping or dysfunctional joints.
Hence severe cases of knee osteoarthritis may necessitate surgical operation for complete knee replacement.
If osteoarthritis affects cervix or lumbar area of spine it can make the neck or lower back painful. The spinal nerves may become irritated with formation of bony spurs along arthritic spine turning the affected parts becoming highly painful, numb and tingled. Osteoarthritis may also make the bony finger joints become hard and enlarged
