Osteoarthritis Research Paper

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disorder. It occurs when cartilage begins to break down or be worn away and the bone rubs together. As a result bony spurs and inflammation of the joint(s) occurs. Surrounding ligaments and muscles may also weaken or stiffen. Major risk factors are: genetics, excess weight, joint injuries, jobs that involve more than an hour of joint stressing activities like kneeling, and sports that involve direct impact on the joints, twisting, or throwing. Bleeding disorders, disorders that blood supply near joints, and other types of arthritis can cause osteoarthritis. Symptoms typically begin while one is middle aged and almost everyone shows some symptoms of OA by age 70. This is important to note because OA is seemingly inevitable for everybody. OA is not curable and typically gets worse with time, but the symptoms can be managed. Strength in weight bearing joints, the hip, the knee, and the ankle, is particularly important for prevention. Also important are not overusing joints and maintaining a normal body weight.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disorder; knee is the joint that most frequently affected.1 During 1988 to 1994, among US adults, the prevalence of knee OA was 37.4%, and the prevalence was greater among women than men (42.1% vs 31.2%).2 Knee OA will impair lower extremity function, and influencing the quality of life. The most common complaints from the patients with knee OA are the pain, daily functional decline, joint deformity, and gait deviation3,4. Symptomatic OA knee patients have shown that significantly less knee angular velocity and knee range of motion during gait. The normal joint load line can be altered with possible varus angulation of the knee, eventually affecting

Osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease, is a form of arthritis characterized by the breakdown of cartilage within joints. Cartilage serves to provide cushion at the ends of bones, and when the cushion is not sufficient, as in osteoarthritis, the bones rub together. As a result, osteoarthritis sufferers are constantly plagued by stiff, swollen, and inflamed joints (http://www.arthritis.org/answers/diseasecenter/oa.asp). It is a relatively common condition, with an estimated 20 million American sufferers, most of whom are elderly (http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1668.50297). Traditional treatments include Tylenol, aspirin, or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, is most prevalent in older patients. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative bone disease due to the gradual loss of cartilage. A primary type of osteoarthritis is hip arthritis where it is caused by joint injury, increasing age, and being overweight (“Hip Osteoarthritis,” n.d.). However, osteoarthritis can also be caused by immature joints, inherited defects in cartilage, and extra stress on a patient’s joints (Hip Osteoarthritis,” n.d.). As a result, hip arthritis becomes a huge detriment in patient’s social, emotional, physical lifestyles. In order to treat hip arthritis, doctors choose from a variety of non-drug treatments, medications, and surgeries. Uniquely, I was inspired to research about the treatments of hip arthritis because my very own brother was pronounced with hip arthritis a few years back. Therefore, his determination to battle this disease encouraged me to investigate about the treatment of hip arthritis.

As stated earlier, the patient admitting challenge was right total knee replacement related to history of osteoarthritis as evidenced by unrelieved pain. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease that “results from cartilage damage that triggers a metabolic response at the level of the chondrocytes” (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper, Barry, Goldsworthy & Goodridge, 2011, p. 1881). As it progress, it causes the cartilage to become “dull, yellow, and granular” instead of being “smooth, white, translucent” (Lewis et al., 2011; Gulanick & Myers, 2014, p. 1881).As a result, it eventually becomes softer, less elastic, and less capable to resist wear during heavy use. Moreover, as the “central cartilage becomes thinner, cartilage and bony growth increases at the joint margins … that results to uneven distribution of stress across the joint” that contributes to a decrease in motion. (Lewis et al., 2011; Gulanick & Myers, 2014, p. 1882). According to this patient, OA has been giving her pain for about two years that lead her to the decision of having the knee replacement.

Disease/Disorder: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common, age-related inflammatory joint disease of the synovial joints. Its characteristics include local areas of loss and damage of articular cartilage, new bone formation of joint margins, subchondral bone changes, synovitis and thickening of the joint capsule. It is typically found in the hands, knees, hips, and spine. OA is often associated with wear and tear therefore symptoms improve with rest (Walker, 2011).

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people worldwide. It occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones wears down over time. Most people don't know they have it because the aches, tenderness, stiffness dont feel like arthritis until x-rays prove it. Just like regular arthritis, it affects the skeletal system. This is because it causes the bones to wear and then become stiff.Primary osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis not resulting from injury or disease, is mostly a result of natural aging of the joint. With aging, the water content of the cartilage increases, and the protein makeup of cartilage degenerates. Eventually, cartilage begins to degenerate by flaking or forming tiny crevasses.Secondary

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. It’s where flexible tissues in the end of the bones wear down. It mostly occurs in knees, hips, lower back, fingers, and the neck. In Osteoarthritis, the cartilage in the bone breaks down which causes pain, swelling, and problems in moving the joint. When it worsens over time, one can get spurs, where bones break down and develop growths. Even though this can occur in anyone, ones who are over the age of 65 will most likely get Osteoarthritis. Some risk factors will include the increasing of age, obesity, genes, weak joint muscles, previous joint injury, and the overuse of the joint in the body. Some related signs/symptoms can be swelling around a joint, stiff joint, and/or having a clicking sound

This study has a number of limitations. The respondents that took part in the study were not asked if they were familiar with any of the existing clinical practice guidelines for the management of knee OA or whether their choice of treatment was influenced by any of the existing clinical practice guidelines for knee OA. Particularly since most of these guidelines are accessible and are within the public domain. For instance, within the field of rheumatology, a number of clinical practice guidelines are in existence [2, 12-17] and most of these guidelines are continually been reviewed and updated in the light of new findings emerging from research on the effectiveness of various modalities and approaches to the management of knee OA. The evaluation

More than 20 million people in the US and over 100 million people worldwide suffer from knee osteoarthritis. It is one of the most common causes of disability among older adults. The effects of knee osteoarthritis include severe joint pain and reduced bodily motion. In other words, it makes doing everyday physical activities such as kneeling, sitting, and walking up stairs extremely difficult.

The symptoms of osteoarthritis are usually very slow to manifest worsen over time. Symptoms include joint pain, tenderness in joints, joint stiffness, loss of flexibility, a grating sound in the joints and hard lumps around the joints. Though the symptoms can be present in any joint, it’s usually more evident in the affected person’s joints in their knees, hands, hips and spinal column. People at risk are again older people especially women, obese people, those who have had joint injuries, people employed in manual labor jobs, and certain diseases such as diabetes, gout and rheumatoid arthritis where the side effect is osteoporosis. As in osteoporosis, there is no cure for osteoarthritis and the symptoms just keep worsening in patients, but it can be prevented and / or the slow the progression of the disease by staying active and by staying in good physical shape, maintaining body weight. This also help them improve pain and joint

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that stems from the breakdown of cartilage of the bones as a result of traumatic injuries, joint overuse, obesity, or genetic and metabolic diseases. Osteoarthritis mainly affects older woman in the knees, hips, hands and spine. Sufferers experience inflammation, swelling, and pain in affected joints, eventually causing joint stiffness and limitation of movement, misalignment, and knoblike bone growths in the hands (Stark). While there is no known cure for OA, there are many treatment options to help preserve physical function

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder, and more than half of all Americans who are older than 65 have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis. However, recent US data has revealed knee osteoarthritis does not discriminate age, and there is growing evidence that osteoarthritis affects individuals at a young age. The annual cost of osteoarthritis due to treatment and loss of productivity in the US is estimated to be more than 65 billion dollars.1 With no cure currently available for osteoarthritis, current treatments focus on management of symptoms. The primary goals of therapy include improved joint function, pain relief, and increased joint stability. Although the exact cause of osteoarthritis is unknown, many risk factors have been identified including increased age, female gender, obesity, and trauma.2 Within these risk factors, the etiology of osteoarthritis has been divided into anatomy, body mass, and gender.

OA is a musculoskeletal disease that causes chronic joint pain and reduced physical functioning (Laba, brien, Fransen, & jan, 2013). Osteoarthritis (OA) is a non-inflammatory disorder of synovial joints that results in loss of hyaline cartilage and remodeling of surrounding bone. OA is the single most common joint disease, with an estimated prevalence of 60% in men and 70% in women later in life after the age of 65 years, affecting an estimated 40 million people in the United States (Goodman & Fuller, 2009). Women are more commonly affected after the age of 55, almost everyone has some symptoms by the age of 70 (Tan, Zahara, Colburn & Hawkins, 2013, p.78). Osteoarthritis can be described radiological, clinical, or subjective.

In the United States, arthritis has become the second most common disorder, in the past years. Moreover, the condition affects more than 34 million Caucasians, 4.6 million African-Americans and nearly 3.1 million Hispanics with women being the most affected (Helmick, 2008). 28.3% of people suffering from arthritis are women whereas 18.2% are men (Helmick, 2008). By the year 2030, it is predicted that the number of patients with arthritis will double if prevalence rates remain the same. Apart from being cost-intensive, Osteoarthritis (OA) affects nearly twenty seven million Americans, which effectively limits their work (Reid, Shengelia & Parker, 2012). The statistics show that Caucasians are the most affected and the Hispanics to be the less affected from Caucasians, Hispanics, and African Americans. It also shows how women also have greater possibilities of getting arthritis than man ever did.