Arthritis of the knee joint in children - symptoms and treatment

Arthritis - a disease of the musculoskeletal system, accompanied by inflammation of the joints. The ailment often affects the knees due to heavy loads on them.

It is considered to be a disease of the elderly, but it occurs in children up to infancy.

About how to diagnose and treat arthritis of the knee joint in children, we will talk about this in an article.

Causes of arthritis of the knee in children

If in adults and elderly people arthritis of the knee arises from excessive loads on the joint (excess weight, "standing" work, and so on), the children's causes are fundamentally different. Let's consider the main ones.

1. Pathologies- congenital negative features of the structure of the musculoskeletal system in children, such as dislocation, fracture, osteomyelitis.
2. Weak immunity
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   - and, as a consequence, frequent colds. Against this background, the child can develop infectious nonspecific (or juvenile) arthritis. Children who have suffered enterovirus diseases, as well as the flu, rubella and hepatitis B, can get viral arthritis.
3. Negative reaction of the child's organism to vaccinationcan also be the cause of the disease (postvaccinal arthritis).
4. Rheumatism, which often sick school children and young people, can be diagnosed and in children from 3 years old. Arthritis caused by rheumatism is called poststreptococcal.
5. Genetic heredity. The elderly relatives suffering from it can transfer the propensity to the disease to the child.
6. Bruises, hypothermia, metabolic disordersor evenpsychological traumacan cause the development of knee arthritis in children.

Clinical manifestations in children and adolescents - how to diagnose it

The main difficulty in diagnosing a disease in a young child is that he can not always accurately describe what is bothering him. Because of pain and discomfort, a child can be capricious, refuse to eat, become passive, but for parents (especially if the child is a complex character), this is not always a signal to visit doctor.

Pain in the knee usually occurs in the morning and passes by the evening. That's why parents, noticing that the baby is limping and complaining in the morning, and running around in the evening, as if nothing had happened, can accept complaints for children's simulation and not attach importance to them.

We list the main symptoms:

1. Obstructed movement of joints. Especially the knee will bother the baby in the morning after sleep. Observe, whether he limps, how equal the gait.
2. Pain after exercise. After moving games, gymnastics, physical education classes and other activities, the patient's knee joint necessarily reminds himself.
3. Swelling in the knee region. A true symptom, in the identification of which you need to immediately go to the doctor, because the knee does not swell just like that. Swelling is usually accompanied by redness of the skin and increased temperature in the joint area.
4. Decreased activity. Children, who are concerned about pain, refuse to play games and other physical activity. It creates the feeling that the child is saving himself.

It is necessary to take into account any changes in the child's habitual behavior, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, passivity and lethargy.

Treatment

For the treatment of children prescribe medication, massage, physiotherapy, exercise therapy, mechanotherapy.

Medicated

NSAIDsNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Reduce inflammation of the joint, stop the pain syndrome. Most popular: acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), Diclofenac, Aceclofenac, Ketoprofen, Meloxicam, Celecoxib, Nimesulide and so on.

Antibiotics. Designed to eliminate infection as the main cause of the disease.Mandatory with purulent arthritis, because delay can lead to purulent melt cartilage and sepsis.Groups of antibiotics used in arthritis: macrolides and fluoroquinolones.

Immunomodulators. Such drugs restore immunity and help the child's organism to fight the disease in a natural way. Especially immunomodulators are necessary for prolonged chronic arthritis. The most popular among them: Polyoxidonium, Imunofan, Imudon, Cycloferon, Tactivin.

Immunosuppressive drugs, on the contrary, suppress immunity, and are appointed by the doctor when it is necessary to remove the inflammation and return the joint mobility. Examples of such drugs are Sulfasalazine, Azathioprine, Cyclophosphamide, Methotrexate, Leflunomide.

Immunosuppressants are characterized by such side effects as the risk of infection, anemia, disruption of the production of new blood cells by the body. Assign them very rarely, only with a high degree of activity of the inflammatory process.

Glucocorticoids. These are potent steroid hormonal drugs, the purpose of which is to remove the inflammatory process, return the mobility joint, slow the progression of arthritis.

Glucocortiros are prescribed together with NSAIDs, as monotherapy they are not used because of severe side effects.

Physiotherapy

This type of treatment includes electrophoresis, ultraviolet irradiation, amplipulse, laser treatment, magnetotherapy. Each method and conjugated medications the doctor assigns to the child individually, depending on the nature of the course of the disease. As a rule, physiotherapeutic treatment is performed after an acute period of the disease.

Physiotherapy

A special set of exercises, selected by the doctor individually, depending on the age and features of the disease, is aimed at restoring the motor function of the knee joint.

Prevention

There are no special preventive measures as such. But at the same time it is possible to provide the child with proper care and reduce the likelihood of the disease. For this you need:

1. Accustom the child to cleanliness: be sure to wash your hands before eating, coming from the street, after the toilet.
2. A healthy balanced diet.
3. In time, treat bruises, disinfect wounds, scratches and other foci of infection.
4. Pay attention to the child's complaints for pain in the joints.
5. Carry out a routine examination with a pediatrician.

It is important to begin to treat arthritis in a child in time to prevent the transition of the disease to a chronic stage. Do not engage in self-medication, remember: to place an accurate diagnosis and appoint the right treatment can only specialist.