A swollen knee occurs when excess fluid accumulates in or around your knee joint.
Your doctor might refer to this condition as an effusion in your knee joint. Some people call this condition "water on the knee."
A swollen knee may be the result of trauma, overuse injuries, or an underlying disease or condition.
To determine the cause of the swelling, your doctor might need to obtain a sample of the fluid to test for infection, disease or injury. Removing some of the fluid also helps reduce the pain and stiffness associated with the swelling.
Once your doctor determines the underlying cause of your swollen knee, appropriate treatment can begin.
Fluid in the Knee and Symptoms
Signs and symptoms typically include:
- Swelling. The skin around your kneecap can puff up noticeably, especially when you compare the affected knee to the normal one.
- Stiffness. When your knee joint contains excess fluid, you might not be able to bend or straighten your leg completely.
- Pain. Depending on the cause of the fluid buildup, the knee might be very painful — to the point that it's difficult or impossible to bear weight on it.
Why does fluid appear in the knee, why does swelling develop in the knee?
Swelling in the knee is caused by many reasons and most of all: trauma, injury to yoga or meniscus, joint irritation due to heavy load, fracture.
Underlying diseases and conditions that can produce fluid buildup in and around the knee joint include: osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Infection, gout, pseudogout, bursitis.
Risk-factors can include age, obesity, sports.
A complicated form of swelling in the knee area is muscle atrophy and Baker's cyst.
Diagnosis and Treatment
To find out why there is fluid in your knee, your doctor will look at your medical history and order an x-ray and ultrasound. Magnetic resonance imaging may be needed.
As already mentioned, after diagnosing the cause, the appropriate course of treatment is prescribed.
In case of severe pain, the doctor will prescribe a painkiller; corticosteroids are prescribed to reduce the inflammatory process. Also, some types of steroids may be injected into the knee joint by a doctor.
If non-surgical methods of pathology management do not produce the desired result for some reason, the doctor will consider the procedure of arthrocentesis (knee joint puncture), arthroscopy and knee joint replacement.
In order to improve the function of the knee, your doctor may recommend a course of physiotherapy.
Prevention
A swollen knee is typically the result of an injury or chronic health condition. To manage your overall health and prevent injuries:
- Strengthen the muscles around your knee.
- Swimming and water aerobics are effective for the knee joint;
- Maintain a healthy weight. Excess weight contributes to the wear-and-tear damage that can lead to a swollen knee.
Source
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/swollen-knee/symptoms-causes/syc-20378129
