Some patients have found bone spurs due to knee pain or physical examination, and are worried about what this "thing" is. Although the doctor said it doesn't matter, it is a foreign object after all. Is it harmful?
Bone spurs in the knee
Bone spurs usually occur in people over 50 years old, but it is not ruled out that young people, when the cartilage between the knee joints becomes thinner, the bones decrease, and the muscle strength is weakened, the weight bearing and movement of the knee joints will be affected, and it is easy to get inflammation when rubbing against each other. The human body has a self-protection function called a compensation mechanism. It increases the contact area between bones by growing more bones and reduces the body's pressure on the joint surface. At the same time, in order to protect the joints, it also limits the movement of the joints. This kind of thing is called bone spurs or osteophytes. Bone spurs can also be understood as scars that grow after injury. They are thicker and wider than the original bone tissue, forming hyperplasia.
Is bone spurs harmful?
Bone spurs are actually not "spikes". Most of the bone spurs are round and blocky, with smooth surfaces and more like hard lumps. They generally do not "punch" the joints. Many bone spurs are asymptomatic and will not hurt. Unless they pass a knee X-ray, the patient does not know that they have bone spurs. However, larger bone spurs may compress the surrounding soft tissue, causing symptoms including knee pain, numbness, stiffness, uneven joints, reduced range of motion, and tendonitis .
Bone spurs are one of the signs of osteoarthritis . The effects of bone spurs include stiff and swelling of the knee when waking up in the morning. Swelling is divided into soft swelling and hard swelling. Soft swelling means fluid accumulation in the knee, and hard swelling is a sign of bone spurs. In addition, bone spurs can create noise in the knee joints. The surface of healthy cartilage is smoother than the ice surface, and there is no sound when rubbing. When the cartilage is worn or damaged, rough bone spurs appear on the surface, making noise when walking.
Do you need to cut off bone spurs
Unless it is particularly serious, surgery is rarely used to remove bone spurs because it does not solve the fundamental problem. The bone spurs in the knee joint mean that osteoarthritis is developing. Simply cutting off bone spurs does not solve the problem. Treating arthritis is the key point. Most patients with bone spur stimulation can effectively control symptoms through conservative treatment. The goal of treatment is to stop the vicious cycle of inflammation and pain.
Conservative treatment includes drug treatment, physiotherapy, Chinese medicine, etc. You can take anti-bone hyperplasia drugs, and you can also take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to play an anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving role, such as ibuprofen , futalin, etc. You can also consider taking drugs or supplements such as glucosamine to promote the repair of articular cartilage and reduce damage. In addition, exercise is also beneficial to the treatment of bone spurs, but it does not mean that exercise can eliminate bone spurs. Bone spurs are essentially the same as bones. Excessive exercise may temporarily weaken bone spurs, but at the same time, joint cartilage will suffer severe wear and tear. After repair, bone spurs will grow again, which is difficult to break with vicious cycles.
Therefore, appropriate exercise can enhance the muscle strength around the knee, strengthen the stability of the knee joint, reduce compensation, thereby weakening the foundation for bone spur growth, and also protecting cartilage.
If the above methods do not work, or the bones and joints have developed to the late stage, the pain cannot be relieved, and the limitation of function has seriously affected daily life, surgical treatment must be considered. It should be added that osteoarthritis is not the only factor in the growth of bone spurs, such as the rare diffuse idiopathic osteohypertrophy, which requires an experienced doctor to conduct differential diagnosis.
Medical science popularization, for reference only.
