Patients are often immediately concerned they need a knee replacement when faced with arthritis. The good news is that most cases, short of those that are severe and have failed other therapies, are managed well with non-surgical interventions– of which there are many to consider.
What are some treatment options?
When it comes to treatment options for arthritis, the discussion should be grounded upon consideration of the medical EVIDENCE. In other words, “What does the science say?”
The Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) routinely reviews medical studies and publishes an updated list of therapies and their opinion on them. This guidance is considered the “Gold Standard” when treating arthritis.
The OARSI opinion for each therapy is graded from “Strongly” recommended to “Against” with several degrees in between based on data reflecting how well each therapy works. There are caveats to these recommendations as there are several therapies that have not been studied under strict and validated settings.
Therapies that have not been studied under strict and validated settings are not recommended because there isn’t strong data to support their use. This doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t work, it just means there isn’t enough information to determine if they work.
Platelet Rich Plasma
What about the extremely popular modalities of acupuncture and platelet rich plasma? The efficacy for these therapies is considered “Low” by OARSI, mostly because of the difficulty in studying these therapies in a standardized fashion. Our anecdotal experience, however, suggests otherwise. Certainly, more work in this field of medical research is needed, and we are thankful to have an often-updated set of guidelines through OARSI to share with you.
Therapies that we currently offer at Transcend to combat arthritis:
- Physical therapy/water exercises (We can provide a referral to specialists who we work closely with.)
- Anti-inflammatory medication cream applied to the skin
- Anti-inflammatory medication taken by mouth
- Corticosteroid injection (cortisone family)
- Gel injections of hyaluronic acid
- Regenerative injections to harness the healing mechanism of your own body, such as platelet rich plasma and prolotherapy
- Acupuncture
- Supplements to nourish cartilage
- Bracing
STOP IN TODAY TO HEAR MORE ABOUT THESE OPTIONS AND HOW THEY MAY BENEFIT YOUR CASE IN PARTICULAR!