What Exactly Is Arthritis?
Article featured on Movement Orthopedics
“Arthritis” is used to describe joint pain and inflammation. There are many different types of arthritis. It can occur at any joint in the body, including the hip, knee, and shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand, as well as the foot and ankle. It most often occurs in the hands, hips, and knees.
Arthritis tends to cause pain, swelling, and stiffness in the affected joint.
The most common types of arthritis are:
- Osteoarthritis – a wear-and-tear type of arthritis in which the cartilage cushioning the ends of your bones begins to wear away. This ultimately leads to bone-on-bone friction, which is what causes the pain and swelling associated with arthritic joints. There is no cure for osteoarthritis, and the condition gets progressively worse over time. This is by far the most common type of arthritis.
- Rheumatoid Arthritis – considered an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the synovial membrane that lines and lubricates joints, causing the membrane to become inflamed. This can lead to deterioration of cartilage and bone at the joint.
- Gout – another very common type of arthritis. In this case, a build-up of uric acid in the blood (often due to a purine-rich diet that includes foods like red meat, organ meat, scallops, tuna, or sardines) causes sharp crystals to collect at the joints. This results in pain, swelling, redness, and heat – typically occurring in one joint at a time.
Who Is Prone to Arthritis?
Those who may be at an increased risk of developing arthritis include:
- Older adults – symptomatic osteoarthritis is estimated to affect nearly 10% of men and 20% of women over the age of 60.
- Athletes – active people, whether young or old, face an increased risk of arthritis developing after an injury to a joint, although anyone with a joint injury is more likely to develop arthritis, which is called post-traumatic arthritis.
- Obese adults – added stress on the joints can make the wearing away of cartilage occur faster.
Treating Arthritis
There are numerous conservative methods used to treat symptomatic arthritis, including:
- Medications (prescription and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories or pain relievers)
- Physical therapy that includes strengthening the muscles around the joint
- Pain-relieving injections like cortisone shots or viscosupplementation for knee osteoarthritis
- Activity modification to reduce the strain on your arthritic joint
- Assistive devices, such as using bracing or a cane
Lifestyle approaches that can help include weight loss and engaging in regular, joint-friendly exercise, such as swimming, bicycling, walking, or dancing.
Your Surgical Options
Should conservative measures fail to relieve your symptoms, or if these measures stop working for you, the orthopedic specialists at Movement Orthopedics are experts in the use state-of-the-art surgical techniques to help you return to your usual activities, free from the pain of arthritis.
In many cases, this may mean minimally invasive joint replacement, reconstruction, or repair – including robotic-assisted surgery – to improve your mobility and decrease pain and inflammation.
The Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center of Oregon is an award-winning, board-certified orthopedic group located in downtown Portland Oregon. We utilize both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal trauma, spine diseases, foot and ankle conditions, sports injuries, degenerative diseases, infections, tumors and congenital disorders.
Our mission is to return our patients back to pain-free mobility and full strength as quickly and painlessly as possible using both surgical and non-surgical orthopedic procedures.
Our expert physicians provide leading-edge, comprehensive care in the diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic conditions, including total joint replacement and sports medicine. We apply the latest state-of-the-art techniques in order to return our patients to their active lifestyle.
If you’re looking for compassionate, expert orthopedic and podiatric surgeons in Portland Oregon, contact OSM today.
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Portland, OR 97209
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