Cartilage damage - osteoarthritis
Definition & Therapy
ÜBERSICHT
Cartilage is a layer without nerves or blood vessels that occurs in every joint in our body. Since both parts of a joint are covered with a smooth layer of cartilage, friction is minimized. Due to the unique composition of the cartilage, it acts as an elastic shock absorber in the event of sudden pressure loads and protects the joints from wear and tear.
Due to its vascularized structure, the cartilage has no blood supply. This also explains why cartilage damage can no longer heal on its own.
Since there is also no nerve supply in the cartilage, cartilage damage itself does not cause pain. Only when changes occur in the underlying bone does this cause pain. Individual pieces of cartilage, even of minimal size, which have become detached from the main layer can cause inflammation of the joint lining, which can also cause pain.
What is osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis is defined as a degenerative change in a joint. In this case, the wear and tear of the joint cartilage has already progressed until it is partially or completely depleted. As a result, the bone becomes deformed (deforming osteoarthritis) and misalignments, e.g. of the leg axis, worsen (bow leg, knock-knee) and movement restrictions progress.
When treating cartilage damage, multiple factors must be included in the treatment plan:
- Cause of cartilage damage: -trauma or degeneration- Fresh cartilage damage caused by trauma is easier to treat, chronic damage caused by degeneration is more difficult to treat.
- Age of the patient: With increasing age, cartilage regenerates or repairs heal less well in the cartilage defect.
- Meniscus damage: Its lack of buffer function increases the pressure conditions in this joint section so that new replacement cartilage cannot heal.
- Axial misalignment: Axial misalignments also cause a considerable increase in stress and strain on this joint section. New cartilage regenerates are therefore less likely to heal.
- Instability: Ligament instability (e.g. cruciate ligament rupture) leads to atypical shear forces in the joint section, which are also an obstacle to the healing of replacement cartilage.
