New knowledge of osteoarthrosis

It is being gradually accepted that osteoarthrosis should be regarded in functional terms and, for investigative purposes, as 'joint failure'. Various anatomical, metabolic, and tissue factors can all produce the same end result in the final common pathway of cartilage degeneration, pain, and loss of joint function. Thus osteoarthrosis is a heterogeneous disease that is age-related but is not merely a con-sequence of ageing. This makes finding a single initial pathogenic mechanism difficult and may imply the coexistence of more than one aetiological factor. There are many reviews of osteoarthrosi