Joints are injured quite often, and people with an active lifestyle and athletes are especially prone to this. Even mild damage can result in inflammation, as a result of which a disease such as post-traumatic arthritis. The joint bag, cartilage, ligaments, muscles and tendons at the same time lose their integrity. What is post-traumatic arthritis? ICD includes this disease under a specific code, which we will talk about later.
Frequent minor injuries that a person may not even notice cause this disease. This provokes the progress of the destructive process and inflammation of the joint. And most often injuries occur in the knees, elbows, ankle. In rare cases, the shoulder joints and fingers are subject to damage.
Now let's look at what factors trigger post-traumatic arthritis.
The main causes of post-traumatic arthritis
The described disease develops in people regardless of age. Various injuries lead to the development of the inflammatory process in the joint. Most often, the cause of the pathology is:
- dislocation when the joint bag and ligaments are damaged;
- bruise, which leads to the formation of cartilage tissue cracks and small hemorrhages;
- often repeated vibrations - damage blood vessels, as a result of this leads to the development of traumatic arthritis.
What is the ICD code for this disease
Post-traumatic arthritis, like every disease, in professional medicine has a certain code that allows you to classify pathology. ICD 10 post-traumatic arthritis also has a code from M00 to M25. It depends on where the pathology is localized.
Signs of the disease
After various minor injuries of the joint - bumps, sprains or vibrations - the destruction of various tissues inside or nearby occurs. This causes hemorrhage and further inflammation. The joint is destroyed gradually, so the patient may not pay attention to the symptoms accompanying this process.
Post-traumatic arthritis is characterized by the following symptoms:
- growing pain and aches in the damaged joint;
- crunching during movements;
- limited mobility;
- swelling and redness.
If the injury was serious, then the symptoms are usually pronounced. Acute post-traumatic arthritis is exactly what appears. This often leads to a significant increase in body temperature and symptoms of intoxication and leukocytosis.
It is important to understand that if severe pain occurs after an injury that is only getting worse, you should immediately consult a doctor.
Doctors Recommendations
Now let's talk about what is done with the diagnosis "post-traumatic arthritis" treatment. The fact is that many patients may not even be aware of the presence of this pathology. A visit to a doctor, as a rule, occurs only when pain during movements becomes unbearable and difficult to perform.
But in the case of a chronic course of the disease, therapy is complex and takes a long period of time. The appearance of irreversible degenerative changes in the joints is not excluded. Then the problem can be solved only with the help of arthroplasty. This is a rather complicated operation, but after it is often restored to working capacity.
And in order to exclude complications in advance, it is necessary to visit a doctor after receiving an injury. He will prescribe certain diagnostic measures: radiography, CT, MRI, ultrasound. This will help determine if there is any internal damage. And if treatment is started in a timely manner, then most often complications can be avoided. The joint will function normally, and human performance will continue.
If an acute course is observed, then urgent medical care should be provided to the patient. That is, with severe pain, swelling and redness in the joint area of the patient, they are placed in a medical institution for diagnosis and treatment.
What complications can post-traumatic arthritis lead to?
When ignoring signs of discomfort in the joint area, the surrounding tissue is covered by the inflammatory process. This often leads to periarthritis, in which periarticular tissue becomes inflamed.
The joint gradually collapses, deforming arthrosis develops. Synovitis with deformation of the joint itself or bursitis with bacteria entering the synovial fluid may also appear. If you continue to ignore the treatment, the joint becomes stiff, and this can remain for the rest of your life.
Purulent infection and sepsis are considered the most dangerous complications. Once again, it should be emphasized that it is necessary to treat the disease, otherwise the joint can completely collapse.
What drugs to treat the disease?
Post-traumatic arthritis (ICD 10 M00-M25) is a very serious disease and requires the same treatment approach. Only a doctor should select drugs for the treatment of this pathology. Moreover, this should be done after a thorough examination. It is required to identify:
- the presence of hemorrhage;
- tissues that are damaged;
- the degree of the inflammatory process.
In this case, effective therapy will be selected. Most likely, certain drugs must be prescribed:
- Painkillers for internal use. They relieve aches and discomfort, especially when there is an acute period immediately after an injury. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs ("Naproxen", "Indomethacin", "Diclofenac", "Aspirin" or analgesics) is justified. If there are severe intolerable pains, then prescribe corticosteroids: "Prednisolone", "Diprospan", "Kenalog" and others.
- External anti-inflammatory drugs that relieve pain and warm the joint before therapeutic exercises. It is better that they have a vegetable base. Great if they are in the composition with glucosamine and collagen. This will ensure the restoration of the joint. Permissible use of "Voltaren", "Collagen Ultra."
- Cartilage tissue repairing preparations, namely vitamin complexes, for example, Osteomed or Osteovit, dietary supplements: Dihydroquercitin Plus, or plant extracts, such as dandelion root. Chondroprotectors are also often prescribed, the most popular of them: Teraflex, Chondroitin.
What are the treatment options?
What else can be treated for post-traumatic arthritis? These methods are not a substitute for drug therapy, but help to restore a damaged joint faster. These include:
- Physiotherapy. Thanks to her, freedom of movement will return. With severe injury without a fracture, exercises can be started after a week. A faster start to develop a joint will help the timely start of therapeutic exercises. This is especially true in the chronic form of the disease, otherwise the bone tissue will grow and the joint will become stiff.
- Massage and physiotherapeutic methods that effectively stop the destructive process and relieve inflammation. The use of inductothermy, UHF, paraffin baths is indicated. By such methods, for example, post-traumatic arthritis of the finger is well treated, because sprains and bruises of the limbs are a common type of injury.
In cases where the process is very running, conservative treatment can not do. Surgery can help a person regain working capacity and allow him to lead an active lifestyle again.
Types of surgical treatments
In an operational way, you can cure the advanced form of post-traumatic arthritis. The named treatment has several types. So, it can consist of:
- complete or partial surgical removal of the synovial membrane (synovectomy);
- in stabilization of damaged structures of the knee joint (arthroscopy);
- joint reconstruction (endoprosthetics).
It should be noted that the latter method is often used to treat post-traumatic arthritis of the knee joint.
To fully restore the joint, it must be developed to return mobility to it. Medical gymnastics is engaged in this. In combination with massage and physiotherapeutic procedures, this method works very effectively.
What to choose a diet for post-traumatic arthritis?
Due attention should be paid to proper nutrition in case of joint damage. So, the patient necessarily needs a large amount of calcium in food, vitamins D and A. Flaxseed and seafood are also very useful for this disease. But purines, animal proteins and salt are not recommended. After all, all this can provoke gout, which is one of the frequent consequences of post-traumatic arthritis.