Symptoms

Symptoms of OA of the knee:¹

1. Pain when moving the knee
2. Grating or catching when moving the knee
3. Sensation in the knees of "giving away" or "locking"
4. Pain when walking up or down stairs or getting up from a chair
5. Pain that prevents a patient from exercising their leg
6. Weakening large thigh muscles

Diagnosis

OsteoarthritisOsteoarthritis
Arthritis typically with onset during middle or old age that is characterized by degenerative (gradual deterioration of joint) and sometimes abnormal growth in the bone and cartilage of one or more joints and a progressive wearing down of opposing joint surfaces with consequent distortion of joint position and is marked symptomatically especially by pain, swelling, and stiffness; abbreviation (OA) is suspected when patients have joint pain and is confirmed by physical examination.

Tools to diagnose and confirm osteoarthritis:¹

1. Medical history- health background, previous procedures and current medications
2. Physical exam- look for joint swelling, tenderness, loss of joint motion and joint damage caused by bony growths in and around joints
3. X-rays- highlight damage, formation of bone spursSpurs
   A sharp, bony outgrowth located at the end of a bone or narrowing of joint space from cartilageCartilage
   A usually translucent somewhat elastic tissue that composes most of the skeleton loss
4. Joint aspirationJoint Aspiration
   The act of removing a fluid from a joint in the body by a hollow needle connected with a suction syringe- draining fluid from the joint for examination
5. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
   A special imaging technique used to image internal structures of the body particularly the soft tissues- shows more detail than X-rays