Recently, a patient complained to me: “Doctor, my two knee joints have been in a lot of pain lately, and I’ve been to many hospitals and doctors, and I’ve taken a lot of medicine, even sodium hyaluronate, which costs two to three hundred dollars a piece, four or five times, and I’ve spent at least three to four thousand dollars, but I haven’t seen any improvement. The two knee joints are swollen like a pig’s foot, and when you ask, you are 50 or 60 years old, but you have to climb six flights of stairs every day to go home, and you have to buy food and cook to take care of your grandchildren, so you are busy all day long. I had to go to the hospital. The doctor looked at it and took pictures, and oh, “osteoarthritis of the knee”. The doctor suggested sodium hyaluronate, which is expensive, but effective and has no closed side effects. The pain of walking up and down the stairs had to be treated, and it wasn’t too much trouble to give a shot once a week. The first one or two times was fine, walking is not so painful, but the more you play, the more pain you seem to play, so you have to change the hospital to find us, there is the above complaint. Yes, it’s not good to have such expensive injections, why is it enough to have sodium hyaluronate alone? First of all, we need to know what is osteoarthritis? Osteoarthritis (OA), also known as degenerative joint disease, hypertrophic osteoarthritis, is a chronic aseptic inflammatory disease with joint pain and degenerative changes in joint cartilage as the core, involving bone and including the bursa, joint capsule and other structures of the joint in a comprehensive, multi-level, varying degree. It is more common in middle-aged and elderly people, more women than men, with a prevalence of up to 50% over the age of 60 and up to 80% at the age of 75; the disability rate can be as high as 53%, which may lead to a shorter life expectancy. The clinical manifestations of the disease include: joint pain Initially, it is mild to moderate intermittent vague pain, which improves at rest, and the pain is often related to weather changes. In the late stages, there may be persistent pain or nocturnal pain, localized pressure pain, especially when swelling; joint stiffness stiffness and tightness when waking up in the morning, relieved by activity, lasting for a short time, often a few minutes to ten minutes, rarely more than 30 minutes; joint enlargement Some knee joints are caused by the formation of osteophytes or joint effusion; bone friction sound Due to the destruction of joint cartilage, the joint surface is not flat, bone friction sound occurs when the joint is moving The joint may become weak when walking, or the leg may not be fully straightened or the movement may be impaired; X-rays may show asymmetric narrowing of the joint space, subchondral bone sclerosis and/or cystic changes, joint edge hyperplasia and osteoid formation or joint effusion of varying degrees, and free bodies or joint deformation may be seen in some joints. How do we treat osteoarthritis of the knee? First, medication is the foundation. For any pain, pain relief is the first priority. We will give some anti-inflammatory and pain medication to the patient. This will reduce the sterile inflammation in the joint and reduce the pain. We also give drugs such as “aminoglucose and chondroitin sulfate”, which enhance the metabolism of the cartilage and improve its function, and are suitable for long-term use. We also do some herbal fumigation of the knee, silver needle, small needle release, ozone injection, etc. in the muscle strain points around the knee joint to improve the elasticity of the muscles, strengthen the toughness of the muscles, and reduce the burden on the joint. For intra-articular injections, we believe that closure, that is, injecting hormones into the joint, is indeed fast and cheap, but it tends to aggravate joint degeneration and osteoporosis. Therefore, for patients with joint swelling and effusion, especially purulent effusion, we first inject medical ozone into the joint cavity in stages, which can play a very good anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving role without the side effects of hormones. Sodium hyaluronate can change the rheological state of the joint fluid in the joint cavity, increase the lubrication of the joint, protect the joint cartilage, blunt the sensitivity of the receptors to stimulation, reduce pain, induce the production of endogenous sodium hyaluronate, and achieve the effect of inhibiting the further development of the disease. This is how we can say that we have done almost everything in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee, but is this enough? Do we rely on doctors to treat osteoarthritis of the knee? Obviously not, then who? Yes, on yourself! Why is it ultimately up to you? We say that the doctor is helping to reduce the pain and improve the function of the knee, but if the patient does not pay attention to protection, then all the work is in vain, and the result is more and more pain, more and more money, and more and more resentment against the doctor. So how do we pay attention to protect the precious knee joint? 1, pay attention to keep warm 2, action support: mainly to reduce the weight of the affected joint, cane, crutches, walkers, etc., to change the negative gravity angle line, according to the deformity, using the appropriate orthopedic support or orthopedic shoes; 3, functional training: such as knee flexion and extension activities in the non-weight-bearing position, in order to maintain maximum joint mobility; 4, aerobic exercise: such as swimming, bicycles, etc.; 5, weight loss: obesity can be through the metabolic process 6. Self-protection: Do not squat or kneel down to get things, sit on a low stool, sleep on a low bed to increase the friction and weight on the joints. 7. bad posture, avoid long periods of running, jumping and squatting, and reduce or avoid climbing stairs.