The Treadment Of Osteoarthritis

A wide variety of treatments are available for patients with osteoarthritis. Although guidelines for the management of osteoarthritis have been published, rational therapy for individual patients remains difficult because of our relative lack of understanding of the disease process and its outcome.

It is important to let patients know that a diagnosis of osteoarthritis does not necessarily imply progressive disability and declining mobility. In the treatment of osteoarthritis, the goals of therapy include:

• symptom relief
• maintaining and improving optimal and handicap
• minimizing the risk of progression
• facilitating joint healing
• improving the quality of life, and
• helping avoid drug toxicity

The treatment of osteoarthritis should be based on the severity of joint involvement and a full assessment of the patient to determine if local anatomic abnormalities, joint complications, or psychosocial factors contribute to pain and disability. A pyramidal approach may be  used to match the severity of the disease to appropriate nonpharmacologic, pharmacologic, and surgical therapies.