What is Chondromalacia and Its Rough Cartilage Cause of Dull Pain on Inclines Treatment
Chondromalacia, or chondromalacia patellae, occurs when your articular cartilage of the kneecap softens. It is seen most often in young adults and can be caused by injury, overuse, misalignment of the patella, or muscle weakness.
What happens is that instead of your knee cap gliding smoothly across the lower end of your thigh bone, it rubs against it. As such, the repetitive rubbing roughens up the cartilage underneath.
Chondromalacia damage may range from a slightly abnormal surface to a cartilage surface that has been worn to the bone. Chondromalacia related to injury occurs when a blow to the knee cap tears off either a small piece of cartilage or a large fragment containing a piece of bone.
The most frequent symptom is a dull pain around or under the knee cap that worsens when walking down or up inclines, like stairs or a hill, or when the knee bears weight as it straightens.
Chondromalacia is common in runners, but is also seen in skiers, cyclists, and soccer players. With this problem, it is those inclines that may bring you up short with pain.
Chondromalacia exercise treatment includes performing low-impact exercises that strengthen the muscles in the inner part of the quadriceps. Swimming, riding a stationary bicycle, and using a cross-country ski machine are good exercises for this condition. Electrical stimulation may also be used to strengthen the muscles.
Osteochondral grafting and autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is being used to replace the injured cartilage with either transplanted healthy cartilage from another part of your body or growing cartilage from your cartilage cells.
Anther surgical chondromalacia cartilage treatment is arthroscopic surgery, which smooths the cartilage surface and “washes out” any cartilage fragments in the kneecap area.
In severe cases, corrective surgery by adjusting the angle of your kneecap to relieve the friction or repositioning any out of aligned parts.
Filed under: Knee
