Specialized Sports Medicine Care in Colorado Springs

Osteoarthritis

Colorado Springs Orthopaedic Group

Sports injuries can happen to competitive athletes, active adults, weekend athletes, and anyone who enjoys staying physically active. Whether caused by an acute injury or repetitive stress, these problems can affect your performance and keep you from doing the activities you enjoy.

CSOG provides comprehensive sports medicine care for a wide range of injuries and conditions affecting the joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Our specialists emphasize accurate diagnosis and individualized treatment, with options that may include rehabilitation, physical therapy, injections, minimally invasive procedures, and surgery when necessary.

Our approach is focused not only on treating the immediate injury but also on helping you safely regain strength, mobility, and confidence. The goal is to help you return to your sport or activity at the appropriate stage of recovery.

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Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis also called degenerative joint disease, is the most common form of arthritis. It occurs most often in older people. This disease affects the tissue covering the ends of bones in a joint (cartilage).In a person with osteoarthritis, the cartilage becomes damaged and worn out causing pain, swelling, stiffness and restricted movement in the affected joint. This condition most commonly affects the joints in the hips, knees, hands, and spine. Rarely, the disease may affect the shoulders, wrists, and feet.

Causes and Risk Factors

Osteoarthritis is caused by the wearing out of the cartilage covering the bone ends in a joint. This may be due to being overweight, excessive strain over prolonged periods of time, previous fracture, growth abnormalities, joint diseases, injury or deformity.

Some people have congenital abnormalities of the joints that cause early degeneration and subsequently cause osteoarthritis.

Diagnosis

Doctors diagnose osteoarthritis with a medical history, a physical examination and X-rays of the affected joint. During the physical examination, your doctor will examine the affected joint for swelling, pain, tenderness, and assess the joint’s range of motion. An X-ray of the knee may show a loss of the joint space and bone spur formation. There is no blood test for osteoarthritis.

Treatment

There is no known cure for osteoarthritis. However, there are several treatments and lifestyle modifications that can help you ease your pain and symptoms. The objective of the treatment is to reduce pain, improve joint movement, and prevent further damage to the joint. The treatment of osteoarthritis involves:

Medications

Medications may include different classes such as anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid injections, artificial joint fluid injections, and other drugs.

Lifestyle modifications

Some of the lifestyle modifications include:

• A moderate exercise program
• Use of heat or cold treatments
• Eating a healthy and well-balanced diet
• Getting adequate rest
• Losing weight
• Protecting your joints with the use of assistive devices such as splints or braces to support the weakened joints

Physical therapy

Your physical therapist will teach you exercises to keep joints flexible and improve muscle strength.

Surgery

Surgery is usually considered if non-surgical treatment fails to provide relief. Joint replacement surgery is considered an option when the pain is so severe that it affects your ability to carry out normal activities.