Patient procedures
What is osteoarthritis ?
Osteoarthritis is a disease that affects joint cartilage. Cartilage becomes progressively worn and damaged causing joint pain.
Osteoarthritis can occur in the knee joint (gonarthrosis) and the hip joint (coxarthrosis), as well as other joints in the spine and fingers.
Healthy knee Osteoarthritic knee
Healthy hip Osteoarthritic hip
Osteoarthritis is triggered by mechanical events. As a consequence, pain increases with activity.
The causes
- Age seems to play an important role
- Genetics
- Too much activity that places excessive loads on the joints (restrictive physical work, competitive sports)
- Excess weight
- An injury, a fracture
- Inflammatory diseases (rheumatoid arthritis)
- Metabolic diseases such as diabetes