overview

A systemicsystemicSynovial fluid. disease that may attack any or all joints in the body, including the knee jointjointThe junction between the ends of two adjacent bones.. It causes the body's immune system to produce a chemical that attacks and destroys the protective cartilagecartilageThe hard, thin layer of white glossy tissue that covers the end of bone at a joint. This tissue allows motion ... that covers the joint surface, causing deterioration. This, in turn, can cause inflammationinflammationA local response to injury due to a physical reaction (such as abrasion), or to chemical or biological agents,... to occur in the tissues surrounding the knee joint, which may lead to painpainAn unpleasant sensation associated with actual or potential tissue damage, and mediated by specific nerve fibe... and stiffness.

Women between the ages of 40 and 60 are affected by the disease more often than men. It can strike both young and old and afflicts people of all races equally. More than one million Americans have rheumatoid arthritisrheumatoid arthritisGeneralized inflammatory joint disease.. There are some indications that there may be a genetic basis for the disorder.

The effects of rheumatoid arthritisrheumatoid arthritisA chronic and progressive systemic inflammatory disease which damages many joints, especially of the hands and... on the knee can vary from minimal symptoms that can be treated conservatively, to degeneration of the knee joint that may require surgerysurgeryThe branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of disease, injury, and deformity by operation or manipula....