Article byJohn Miller

The most common cause of Knee Arthritis is Knee Osteoarthritis (OA).

Knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative knee condition where the articular cartilage of your knee joint gradually wears away, exposing the underlying bone.

As your knee arthritis progresses, bony spurs also develop in and around your knee joint in response to the change in load distribution and biomechanics.

Within your knee there are two joints which can be affected by knee arthritis: the tibiofemoral joint- the joint between your thigh bone (femur) and your lower leg (tibia) and the patellofemoral joint (the joint between the kneecap and the femur itself).

There are several factors which have been found to predispose people to developing osteoarthritis in the knee joints:

As you age it is normal for joint surfaces to wear down, especially the major weight bearing joints of the lower limb. The ability of joint cartilage to repair itself also declines as you grow older.

Your weight will directly affect the amount of load the joints in your lower limb have to support during weight bearing activities.

Previous injury to your knee can change the biomechanics of your knee joint. This leads to abnormal distribution of load through the knee in everyday tasks.

The gene that produces your articular knee cartilage is sometimes defective and can lead to either decreased lay down of cartilage, or normal lay down of defective cartilage on the joint surfaces.

Read the original:
Knee Arthritis - Physio Works

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