Innovations in Osteoarthritis (OA) Treatment

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is not only a major cause of disability and health care costs, it is also associated with increased death from cardiovascular disease. Innovations in OA treatment need to consider, not only new treatments, but also new and modified approaches to prevention, early management and targeting of major co-morbidities. OA is not a single disease and the drivers of disease vary across different joint groups. This is important in order to develop effective treatments.

Inflammation has an important role in pain and joint damage in hand OA. Recent data has shown that methotrexate results in a moderate and significant improvement in pain and function in hand OA with inflammation. Obesity, a major risk factor for knee OA, effects knees though both loading and metabolically driven inflammation over the course of many years, highlighting the importance of both preventing weight gain as well as weight loss. Weight loss is difficult to achieve.

There is a lot of interest in the glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists such as semaglutide. The evidence for these medication in OA will be reviewed. Exercise is important for maintaining healthy joints. However recent evidence questions the role of specific therapeutic exercise programs. What does this mean for patients? There is a lot of interest in treatments such as stem cell therapies and platelet rich plasma. Should they be used? Over the last decade, there has been a trend for knee replacements to be performed for earlier OA. Have we got this right? These are issues that will be considered in this presentation.

Presenter: Flavia is Professor and Head of Rheumatology at the Alfred Hospital, the Musculoskeletal Unit at Monash University and an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. Flavia’s principle research interests are the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases, with over 660 publications. Her work using novel methods for assessing joint health has underpinned changes in the understanding of the mechanism of disease in osteoarthritis, has identified new treatment approaches and has underpinned novel clinical trials that have resulted in new treatments for OA.

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