How should osteoarthritis be staged?

How should osteoarthritis be staged?

Osteoarthritis is a more common orthopedic disease, usually referring to degenerative osteoarthritis, which is caused by various factors, including old age, obesity, strain, etc. This disease is more harmful, causing severe joint damage, leading to muscle atrophy and reducing the quality of life.

1. Early stage. In the early stage of the disease, the symptoms are relatively mild. Patients will experience joint pain after a cold or fatigue, which may manifest as intermittent pain and can be relieved after rest.

2. Middle stage. In the middle stage of the disease, patients will experience obvious pain symptoms. When they are still or get up in the morning, they will feel joint stiffness and pain. They are often accompanied by lameness symptoms. After proper activity, the symptoms will be alleviated, but will worsen when the amount of activity increases. During this period, the patient's articular cartilage will have obvious lesions, manifested as sclerosis, necrosis, etc., and it is best to receive treatment as soon as possible.

3. Late stage. In the late stage of the disease, patients will experience persistent pain or resting pain, accompanied by joint swelling, joint deformity and joint stiffness, which seriously affects their lives. During this period, the patient's entire joint bone structure is diseased and the patient's mobility is seriously impaired. If not treated in time, muscle atrophy, joint deformity, limb numbness, paresthesia and other phenomena will occur.

The above are the three stages of osteoarthritis, including early, middle and late stages, and the symptoms of each stage are different. The disease mainly causes symptoms such as joint pain, movement disorders, muscle atrophy, joint deformity, etc., with different degrees of severity, which can be diagnosed through imaging and laboratory tests. The earlier the treatment, the better. In the acute stage, drugs can be used to control the disease, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, joint puncture and injection of therapeutic drugs. If the drug treatment is not effective and the condition continues to worsen, the patient needs to undergo surgery, including arthroscopic cleaning, joint fusion, joint replacement, etc.