Managing Arthritis: Effective Strategies and Comprehensive Approaches

By Dr. Shitij Kacker in Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement

Jan 25 , 2024 | 2 min read

Arthritis means inflammation of a joint and presents with pain, swelling difficulty in movement. Although arthritis is a broad term comprising more than 100 disorders, osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis. Osteoarthritis causes cartilage on the ends of the bone to wear away, leading the bones to rub against each other. This cartilage degeneration usually happens with age, but sometimes mechanical stress, injury obesity can cause osteoarthritis to begin at a younger age, as well.

The 1st step in managing arthritis is educating the patient about the problem the natural course of the disease. At present, there is no way to ensure the regeneration of this worn-out cartilage; therefore, it is important to allay the anxiety apprehension that the patient has about what to expect set realistic goals for treatment. Patients need to be educated that the primary aim of treatment is controlling pain, preserving joint function mobility and improving quality of life.

The next step is managing modifiable factors like weight loss nutritional counselling. One should eat a healthy, balanced diet comprising omega-3 fats (cod liver oil), monounsaturated fats, fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts seeds. Reducing weight significantly offloads the joints, as a loss of 1 kilogram of body weight takes away 4 times the load on the knees.

Exercise physiotherapy are the mainstay of early treatment of OA. It helps reduce pain and stiffness and maintains functions range of movement of joints. A combination of aerobic, stretching core strength-building exercises are advised for these patients. Walking, cycling, swimming, yoga water aerobics are highly recommended. Patients suffering from knee hip arthritis should avoid squatting, lunges, running high-impact sports.

For pain management, local application of gels can provide symptomatic relief. Oral painkillers should be judiciously used for short intervals only. Prolonged unsupervised usage can cause stomach ulcers bleeding, damage the kidneys and also increase the risk of stroke heart failure.

Hyaluronic acid, steroid, or PRP injections can be injected for short-term relief. However, it needs to be clearly understood that steroids, PRP or hyaluronic acid injections only provide short-term relief and cannot cure or reverse the arthritis.

When all our conservative treatment fails, and the pain, stiffness, and difficulty in walking start affecting activities of daily living, then a patient benefits only by undergoing joint replacement surgery. In this surgery, the ends of the bones are resurfaced metal and plastic implants are used to cap the resurfaced ends of the bones.

Management of arthritis is multimodal, depending on the symptoms of the patient and the stage of the disease. The earlier one gets a diagnosis starts the right treatment, the better the outcome. Eating a well-balanced diet, maintaining a healthy weight exercising regularly can keep symptoms of arthritis in control. In cases of advanced arthritis, Joint replacement surgery greatly helps in restoring pain-free mobility quality of life.