Do you feel pain in your knees when walking up and down stairs? Do you feel pain in your knees when you kneel? Does your knee even hurt after sitting for a long time? Perhaps this should remind you that your knee needs to rest. The patella is the largest bone in the body, with the upper pole attached to the quadriceps tendon and the lower pole anchored to the tibial tuberosity by the patellar ligament. Its articular surface forms the patellofemoral joint between the medial and lateral femoral condyles, and the patella slides between the medial and lateral femoral condyles during knee flexion movements. Patellar chondromalacia is an osteoarthrosis of the patellofemoral joint caused by chronic injury to the cartilage surface of the patella, resulting in swelling, erosion, cracking, fragmentation, and loss of the cartilage, and eventually the cartilage of the femoral condyle, which is opposite to the patellofemoral joint, also undergoes the same changes. Common symptoms of chondromalacia patella: 1, patellar edge pain, squeezing or pushing the patella when extending the knee will have a sense of friction, accompanied by pain, aggravated when going up and down stairs (this is the most common symptom), kneeling or squatting aggravated, knee pain after sitting for a long time, often feel the knee stiffness, pain is serious, often suggesting that the patellofemoral joint is seriously damaged. 2, young athletes or sports enthusiasts, because of the large amount of activity, training for too long will produce knee pain, rest after the improvement, because of the long course of the disease, the damage is serious will lead to pain longer than the relief time, and even the difficulty of going up and down stairs or sudden weakness and fall. 3, x-ray early stage can be no abnormal, late stage can be seen patellar edge bone superfluous formation, patellofemoral joint unevenness or gap destruction. For young people, chondromalacia patella is often due to excessive flexion and extension of the knee joint, overexertion, or trauma causing wear and tear of the patellofemoral joint, or in some cases due to abnormal distribution of synovial fluid, resulting in malnutrition of the patella, making the joint surface of the patella prone to wear and degeneration. In the elderly, patellofemoral pain is often accompanied by arthritis of the knee, and the patellofemoral joint is damaged, often combined with various degenerative changes of the knee. If you usually do some knee flexion and extension exercises, press and squeeze the patella to feel friction and pain, then you should suspect whether you have chondromalacia patella, active treatment, protection and appropriate exercise, for the protection of the patellofemoral joint, delaying the development of the disease plays an important role. Treatment: 1, try to reduce the fatiguing movement of the knee, if there are already similar symptoms, because try to avoid climbing stairs, climbing so as to increase the damage of the movement, if the patellofemoral joint is damaged by external forces, should brake the joint for about 2 weeks, while strengthening the exercise of the quadriceps muscle, pain is obvious, you can also apply cold compresses, 48 hours to wet heat or perform other physical therapy. 2, glucosamine helps the synthesis of protein mucopolysaccharide in cartilage, which is good for cartilage repair and pain relief; intra-articular injection of hormones or hyaluronic acid and other drugs can help control symptoms, but generally consider such treatment to relieve symptoms when they are severe. 3. Once you suspect you have chondromalacia patellae, you should actively exercise your muscle strength without weight bearing (see the article “Exercise for patients with osteoarthritis”), and some patients can also use knee pads to help stabilize the knee joint. For exercise therapy, try to choose exercises that do not put too much weight on the knee and are more relaxing, such as swimming and bicycling, and warm up well before starting the exercise. If pain arises during exercise, it should be stopped immediately. 4, chondromalacia patella is generally not considered surgical treatment, only when the symptoms are more serious, the patellofemoral joint is seriously damaged consider surgery. This includes arthroscopic surgery, patella cutting, patellar resection, patella replacement, etc.