Osteoarthritis is a disorder that affects the joints and causes joint pain, stiffness, and a gradual loss of mobility.This disease causes the wear and tear of the cartilage that lines the joints due to a complex interaction of factors, biomechanical, genetic, and biochemical pathways that also affect the bone and the membrane lining the joint.It is estimated that up to 70% of the population of more than 50 years have radiographic signs of osteoarthritis in any joint in the body such as the spine, knees, hips, or hands.
Although osteoarthritis is a general process that involves all the structures that make up the joint, the articular cartilage is the main protagonist of this pathology.
The first visible change is the loss of the smooth and homogeneous cartilage due to the reduction in the number of cells that compose it. Then, form cracks and small cracks that can become deep cracks vertical to reach the underlying bone. At the edges of these cracks, a reparative reaction occurs. Finally, there is a disintegration progressive cartilage with direct exposure of the bone below it. This gives rise to a release of fragments of cartilage (loose bodies) and of the bone in toward the cavity of the joint, which can cause an inflammatory reaction in the joint itself.
Some of the factors that relate directly to the progressive deterioration of the joint:
• Age: the wear and tear of the joints increases as you get older
• Obesity: The increase in body weight is an important factor in the development of osteoarthritis, especially in the lumbar spine, hips and knees. Increased weight puts more strain on these structures, leading to greater wear.
• Injury or overuse: The athletes and people with jobs that require repetitive movements, have a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis. This is what happens to the professional football who suffer from osteoarthritis of the knee, or the manipulators, pneumatic hammer, of osteoarthritis of the elbow and wrist.
• Genetics: The heritable damage affecting the shape or the stability of the joints and may lead to the development of osteoarthritis.
Some of the symptoms that may occur with advanced disease are:
• Pain: it Is the main symptom of osteoarthritis, so-called mechanical because it improves or even disappears at rest and worsens with exercise or movement.
• Deformity: In advanced cases may appear deformity and alteration in the alignment of the joints.
• Inflammation and accumulation of synovial fluid: Approximately, one-third of the patients presented episodes of swelling and accumulation of synovial fluid within the joint, which is called effusion. This is especially common in the knee. The joint fluid of osteoarthritis has few cells and is transparent and viscous.
• Atrophy of the muscles contiguous: In advanced cases, produces atrophy of the muscles contiguous, which contributes to the instability of the joint. In these phases can be present different degrees of deformity joint with limitation of mobility and a progressive loss of function of the joint.
If you experience any of these symptoms you are probably suffering from OSTEOARTHRITIS. Therefore do not hesitate to consult our regenerative treatments with mesenchymal cells or platelet-rich plasma of his own blood to improve their quality of life.
