Musculoskeletal System
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is a musculoskeletal condition that is clinically characterized by joint pains, tenderness and limited joint movements. This medical condition can occur at any joint but is largely experienced at the hips, knee, hand and foot and spine joints. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis that affects millions of individuals worldwide (Sinusas, 2012). The risk factors of this type of arthritis include, age, gender, obesity, genetics and past trauma. The diagnosis of this diseases has been based on the frequency of occurrence of joint pains that are worsened by movements. In severe cases the disease can cause irreversible damages that can result in disabilities. Osteoarthritis of the knee is a major cause of impaired mobility among women. In 1990, this type of arthritis accounted for 2.8% of people living with disabilities. The risk of contracting the disease rises with age and as a result extended life expectancy has a high potential of increasing the number of people with this condition (Woolf, et al., 2003). The burden will be greatly felt by developing countries where life expectancy continues to increase and where joint replacement is not yet readily available.
The commonest symptom of this condition is joint pain, the joint pain continues to worsen with extended periods of activity, this limits the daily living activities of an individual. Treatment for this condition can be categorized in four classes; pharmacologic, complementary and alternative, nonpharmacologic, and surgical. When beginning treatment, it is important to start with the safest and least invasive therapies and slowly proceed to more invasive therapies (Felson, et al., 2018). Surgical treatment is reserved for severe cases where the patient fails to respond to behavioural and pharmacologic therapy and for cases where severe pain leads to loss of function. Limitations of treatment are a few and include, difficulties using the level of pain as a diagnosis since improvement of the condition may not be accompanied by reduction of pain but by increased joint movement. The pain that characterize this condition is multifactorial and treatment that targets a single mechanism of pain may be insufficient when it comes to delivering large treatment effect in cases where the mechanism is not operational in the majority of patients (Felson, et al., 2018). Lastly, surgical treatment does not relieve pain in all the individuals with the disease.
Inconclusion, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, it a musculoskeletal condition that is clinically characterized by joint pains. risk factors of this type of arthritis include, age, gender. Treatment include, pharmacologic, complementary and alternative, nonpharmacologic, and surgical. Only a few limitations of treatment exist.
References
Felson, D. T., & Neogi, T. (2018). Emerging Treatment Models in Rheumatology: Challenges for Osteoarthritis Trials. Arthritis & Rheumatology, 70(8), 1175-1181.
Sinusas, K. (2012). Osteoarthritis: diagnosis and treatment. American family physician, 85(1), 49-56.
Woolf, A. D., & Pfleger, B. (2003). Burden of major musculoskeletal conditions. Bulletin of the world health organization, 81, 646-656.
