Osteoarticular disorder, or rheumatic disease, is a group of conditions like arthrosis, arthritis and related musculoskeletal disorders, of which osteoarthrosis (OA) is the most frequent.
Arthrosis, a chronic joint disorder characterised by the progressive degeneration of the cartilage surrounding joints leading to its complete destruction, is the most common of rheumatic diseases. As it progresses, the disease tends to involve the adjacent bone tissue, the articular capsule, the muscles, the tendons and the ligaments, because of the further degeneration of the joint cartilage due to repeated inflammation. Arthrosis can affect different joints, from the knee to the hip, the intervertebral and the temporomandibular joints. The two classic symptoms of arthrosis are pain and functional limitation. Arthrosis pain is typically very intense and appears when starting a movement and then subsides with movement, unlike arthritic pain, which is experienced when the joint is under particular stress. Functional limitation is caused by mechanical obstacles resulting from alterations of the articular heads (cartilage ossification, reduced intra-articular spaces and fluid).
The origin of most osteoarticular disorders is inflammatory in nature. Treatment of active inflammations is based on the use of medications that oppose this process, helping to control the symptoms. Therefore, inflammation control is a crucial therapeutic objective for patients affected by these disorders.