Osteoarthritis Therapy

What is osteoarthritis?

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of joint pain and can affect any joint. The knee, hip and shoulder joints as well as the finger joints are particularly often affected.

Changes in the cartilage tissue lead to a progressive loss of cartilage. In people with very advanced osteoarthritis, there is often a complete loss of cartilage, so that the bone is largely exposed and is no longer adequately protected from major loads and impacts.

What are the risk factors?

Hereditary predisposition, obesity, misalignment of the axes and injuries (e.g. tear in the meniscus or fracture) increase the risk of developing osteoarthritis.

What are the most common symptoms?

The main symptoms of osteoarthritis are pain in the affected joint, a feeling of stiffness and restricted mobility. At first, the complaints only occur during exercise. However, as the disease progresses, the pain can also be felt at rest.

Which therapies are there?

Exercise and physiotherapy?

Regular exercise has a direct positive influence on the function of the cartilage cells and leads to a strengthening of the cartilage structure. There is also a strengthening of the muscles and weight reduction. Muscle-strengthening exercises can also be performed as part of physiotherapy.

Medicinal osteoarthritis therapy

In addition to oral osteoarthritis therapy, local anti-inflammatory drugs can be introduced into the joint cavity. This significantly reduces the intensity and duration of the pain relapses.

Joint treatment with hyaluronic acid

Joint cures can also be carried out. For this, hyaluronic acid is introduced into the joint. Hyaluronic acid is an endogenous substance that increases the lubricity and elasticity of the cartilage and thereby reduces pain.

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Platelet-rich Plasma Therapy (PRP)

The autologous blood therapy, actually platelet rich plasma therapy or PRP for short, is used to treat joint wear.
In Platelet-rich Plasma Therapy, the body’s own wound healing capacity is optimally exhausted through the targeted use of growth and wound healing factors (PDGF, PDGEF, IGF, FGF etc.), the body’s own healing processes are stimulated and there is an improved blood flow in the treated structure.

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Surgical Therapy

In the case of minor wear and tear caused by osteoarthritis and accompanying injuries such as meniscus damage, an arthroscopy (joint endoscopy) can be performed.

If the osteoarthritis progresses, an endoprosthetic treatment becomes necessary (knee or hip prosthesis).

More to Surgical Therapy: Knee Replacement / Hip Replacement