BEST TREATMENT FOR ARTHRITIS

According to Consumer Reports on Health and best treatments for arthritis, Roy D. Altman, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles reports “No one therapy is as effective as we’d like, so patients are often best served by combining treatments.” Because people respond differently to the treatments, they often have to mix and match until they find the combination that works for them.

Half of all adults – and two-thirds of obese adults – will develop arthritic knees during their lifetime, researchers estimate. Despite those growing numbers and the considerable pain and disability the condition causes, treatment remains frustrating and confusing. Pills, rubs and shots offer limited benefits and cause side effects. Glucosamine supplements are promising but largely unproven. Joint replacement surgery has helped many but recent reports have raised concerns about one form of the operation may have complications even though it relieves pain. In spite of recent advances, the combination of metal and plastic parts may rub against each other and generate microscopic metal particles that appear to have toxic effects on the surrounding tissue. A small percentage, but sometimes patients have pain resulting in a large swollen mass around the hip known as a pseudotumour and death of the tissue. “If you don’t catch it early, it can be very difficult to put in a new implant,” says Matthew Kraay, M.D., a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Case Western Reserve University school of Medicine in Cleveland. “These reports have increased dramatically in great Britain, where they’ve used metal-on-metal hips for a longer time. There isn’t much reason to think it will be any different here.”