Therapy goals
- Pain relief
- Improvement of mobility
- Improvement of walking performance
- Improving the quality of life
- Delay the progression of osteoarthritis
Therapy recommendations
Depending on the severity of the disease and individual problems, the following medications can be used:
- Analgesics (painkillers)
- Non-acid analgesics
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs; non steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs).
- Selective COX-2 inhibitors (coxibe).
- Opioid analgesics
- Glucocorticoids
- Chondroprotectants (cartilage protectants)
- Phytotherapeutics (herbal remedies
- See also under “Further therapy“.
Varia
- Bisphosphonate treatment (mostly alendronate or risedronate) of 2,006 women (mean age, 76 years; ages, 50-90 years) with gonarthrosis resulted in 138 patients with and 170 without bisphosphonate treatment having a knee TEP (artificial knee joint) implanted during the follow-up period of a mean of 3 years, which corresponded to 22 versus 29 operations per 1,000 person-years, a 26% risk reduction. Mortality (number of deaths in a given period, relative to the number of the population in question) was similar in both groups; with further adjustments and sensitivity analyses, the risk of knee TEP was consistently found to be approximately 25% lower with bisphosphonate therapy.
