Treatment of hip osteoarthritis in Germany
Osteoarthritis of the hip – a disease that is spreading at an alarming rate. Another name for the disease is coxarthrosis. With this pathology, there is a destruction of cartilage and bone tissue around the joint. At the same time, this disease rapidly progresses, and at the final stage there is a complete destruction of the joint, which requires its partial or complete replacement. To date, there is no clear cause for the development of coxarthrosis.
The development of the disease is based on inflammatory processes in the joint, the production of antibodies that begin to attack the joint’s own tissues. In the initial stages of the process, you can achieve quite good results by taking various drugs (anti-inflammatory, chondroprotectors, hormones and others). In the neglected state, various types of surgical interventions are performed.
German clinics pay close attention to patients with coxarthrosis. Usually, specialists of German clinics try to stop the disease at its early stages. For this purpose, in addition to an individually selected drug regimen, patients are treated with various physical therapy methods.
In addition, new methods have recently been developed to reduce the symptoms of coxarthrosis, reduce pain, and restore movement.
— Localized hyperthermia. This type of therapy allows to mobilize energy resources and stimulate plastic reserves by heating the directly affected area of the joint. In this regard, there is a decrease in pain and signs of inflammation. There are several variants of local hyperthermia: endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous heat is supplied by a special device that produces electromagnetic fields. In the exogenous variant of hyperthermia, heat is delivered with a bolus of heated water and thermostatic control. With this method, the therapeutic effect is more pronounced than with laser therapy.
— A new method that has not been used in the correction of disorders in patients with coxarthrosis is radioelectronic asymmetric brain stimulation. Usually coxarthrosis is accompanied by a violation of biomechanics in the affected joint. Patients often spare the affected joint, not only with a pronounced pain syndrome, but also at the initial stages, when there are practically no manifestations. These are so-called motor disorders on the background of psychological stress. Therefore, during brain stimulation, neuropsychophysical optimization takes place. During this procedure in certain points of the brain are given radiofrequency impulses that lead to normalization of the work of these areas. This, in turn, relieves the psychological impact, improving the motor behavior of the person.
These methods have shown high efficiency when used in the complex treatment of a large group of patients with coxarthrosis.
— Surgery may be contraindicated for some conditions. In such cases, various medications are prescribed, which do not always have the desired effect — the pain persists. For such situations, a new method of pain relief has been developed — percutaneous radiofrequency destruction of the locking nerve. This nerve is responsible for pain sensations in coxarthrosis. The operation is minimally invasive and lasts about an hour. In this case, patients note a decrease in pain or its complete absence.
— In Germany, new treatments for coxarthrosis were first discovered and tested. The group of methods is united by a common name — bone marrow stimulation. These methods lead to the restoration of cartilage tissue from its own stem cells. The technique consists in forming small defects in the bone tissue around the affected joint. When defects are formed, the body as a compensatory reaction sends stem cells to the defect sites, which begin to differentiate directly into chondrocytes (cartilage cells) and fill the defects, in addition, they form new cartilage to replace the cartilage destroyed by coxarthrosis.
This group includes the following methods:
— tunnel formation;
— micro-fracture formation;
— periosteum grafting;
— matrix-induced chondrogenesis.
The first three methods consist of stimulating the differentiation of your own stem cells into chondrocytes.
In the latter case, the procedure is carried out in two stages.
First, chondrocytes are selected and cultured in a specific medium for several weeks. This leads to their significant growth, so there is no shortage of material to be implanted later. Then the cells are fixed on a matrix — a special substrate, which is implanted into the joint at the second stage. The result of this procedure is a reduction in the severity of pain and restoration of joint function.
In addition to implantation of chondrocytes or progenitor tissues directly, the introduction of platelet-rich plasma has been very successful. This medium contains a large number of different growth factors that promote proliferation not only of cartilage or bone tissue, but also of soft tissue around the affected joint. This method has been successfully tested in clinical trials, the results of which have shown its clear advantages over hyaluronic acid injection.
Today, many specialists are trying to move away from medication treatment of coxarthrosis. Various physiotherapeutic procedures as well as exercises are used. Recently, clinical trials have been conducted on such a method of physiotherapy as whole-body vibration, which is a set of exercises performed with a special simulator. These exercises can restore muscles that have atrophied as a result of the disease, as well as improve muscle motor function and reduce pain.
Thus, the treatment of coxarthrosis today has undergone great changes. If earlier the process could only be slightly slowed down, today it is possible to completely eliminate pain symptoms and stop further development of coxarthrosis. The effectiveness of treatment depends on the skill level of the specialist. Our orthopaedic clinics in Munich are staffed by leading physicians in this field of medicine, and our expert physicians will ensure that you are treated by them according to your diagnosis.