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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Changing Our Thinking on Osteoarthritis

Louis G. Pack DPM, MS  |  Issue: March 2010  |  

Current supportive data, coupled with the innocuous, inexpensive, generally beneficial effect of optimally corrected custom foot inserts, necessitates that this adjunctive therapy become standardized. Indeed, it is time we changed our thinking.

Dr. Pack is a physician at MCG Medical Associates in Greensboro, Ga., and a founding fellow of the ACR.

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References

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  34. Personal communications, Dr. Patience White, Chief Public Health Officer, Arthritis Foundation, White Paper in April, 2009.

Research Overview

There is much supportive data regarding the role of pathomechanics in OA. In the preface to an issue of Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America devoted to the topic of OA, Hunter wrote that osteoarthritis “is no longer viewed as a passive, degenerative disorder but rather an active disease process driven primarily by mechanical factors.” He now believes that “mechanics plays a critical role in the initiation, progression, and successful treatment of OA,” and recommends that we “learn from the insights our research is providing to focus even more on important modifiable risk factors such as mechanics.” He adds that, by doing so, “we have the opportunity to make a difference in millions of peoples’ lives.”29

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