Osteoarthritis is a common diagnosis. What does it actually mean?
Dr Google tells us
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease where the protective cartilage in joints breaks down, leading to pain, stiffness, and swelling. It is the most common form of arthritis, and while it can occur at any age, it is most prevalent in older adults. Osteoarthritis can affect any joint, but commonly impacts the hands, knees, hips, and spine.
Osteoarthritis is a multifactorial condition, meaning…
Initially, there is a narrowing of the space between the articular surfaces of a joint. Eventually, there is erosion of the smooth articular surfaces of the bones. During the preceding joint deterioration, new bone starts to form along the edge of the joint. This new bone limits the range of motion, causes pain, and ultimately resulting in fusion of the joint and total loss of motion.
The idea for this blog came as I was reviewing some patient X-rays, which unfortunately demonstrate most of these characteristics.
So all of this erosion and destruction sounds fairly bleak for our patient’s future mobility. Do we just break the bad news and send them home?
Quite the contrary, if we can reduce the trauma, improve function, maintain alignment, decrease load, immobilization or a combination of several of these factors we can significantly reduce pain and improve mobility.
As always, this is dependent on an excellent diagnosis. Without a full understanding of the mechanism of damage, it is impossible to reduce the causative factors.
Here is a link to a show we did on this subject. It’s a couple of years old, but the information is equally applicable today.
The one final clincher to success is you, the patient. Once the condition is brought under control and you can now function with reduced or no pain. Remember one thing! We Haven’t Cured Anything. Returning to your previous behaviour and you return to your previous pain. The changes made in activity, function, habits, etc, must be maintained for life. The control may require revisitation or subsequent tweaking, but must be maintained.
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