Osteoarthritis

Injuries, chronic stress or a poor-quality cartilage tissue may promote cartilage damage and as such, lead to osteoarthritis. However, other diseases, e.g. osteoporosis or joint inflammation also contribute to the development of premature degenerative joint disease. In so doing, the cartilage lining of the joint is diminished and on a few joints, it disappears altogether. This leads to painful friction on the abraded surfaces. Because of very different forms and stages of osteoarthritis is necessary to pinpoint the causes before treatment and to treat them in a targeted way. Only this way can the progression the wearing process be impeded.

Symptoms: Initially, affected persons will realise a feeling of stiffness and tension in the affected joints which gradually increase to pain. The resulting relieving posture causes movement restrictions and shortened muscles, reducing long-term flexibility.

Therapy: In the initial stage, treatment can be carried out as part of conservative therapies such as joint injections or drug treatments and physiotherapy. For minimally invasive treatment, arthroscopic surgery with cartilage smoothing and cartilage freshening is available. Joint replacement surgery is only considered in the later stages. Today, we have a wide variety of implants which are available and as such, we are able to find the right artificial hip or knee prosthesis for each patient, and thus improve the quality of people’s lives.