Question

1 what is osteoarthritis
2 what are the clinical manifestations of osteoarthritis
3 list 4 Drugs utilized in the treatment of osteoarthritis include the mechanism of action and patient education.
4 list at least 6 parameters that are different when comparing rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
5 list 5 potential nursing diagnosis for the patients who is diagnosed with arthritis or a connective tissue disease.

Answer 1

1) Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease affecting the joints. It is of two types primary and secondary. Primary osteoarthritis occurs in the joint mainly in the weight bearing joints like the knee and hip. Secondary osteoarthritis joint degeneration occurs due to some underlying primary disease. It can occur at any age after adolescence and mainly in the hip joint.

2) Clinical manifestations of osteoarthritis are

• There is a variation in the joints involves depending upon the living habits. People with western living habits have the hip joint involved and the people with Asian living habits have the knee joint involved.
• The earliest symptom is pain. Starts intermittently and becomes constant over some months or years. Starts as dull pain with work after long rest(morning after sleep) and later becomes severe cramp like pain which comes after work.
• Coarse crepitus maybe complained by some patients.
• Swelling due to inflammation of synovial tissues.
• Stiffness which initially occurs due to pain and muscle spasm. Later it occurs due to capsular contracture and joint surface abnormality.
• Tenderness on like of joint.
• Terminal limitation of joint movement.
• Irregular and enlarged looking joints due to peripheral osteophytes formation.

3) The drugs used in the treatment of osteoarthritis are:

• Analgesics to help with the pain and promote movement which help prevent the stiffness. Long lasting formulations are preferable.
• Chondro-protective agents like glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate were claimed to help in repair of damaged cartilage. Their role as disease modifying agents is yet to be established.
• Viscosuplementation like Sodium hylarunon is injected into joint 3-5 times at weekly interval. It supposedly improves cartilage functions.
• NSAID’s and intra-articular corticosteroids are given to reduce the inflammation and reduce further damage to the articular cartilage.

4) The parameters that are different for osteoarthritis from rheumatoid arthritis are:

• The pain in osteoarthritis in the morning after sleep lasts for less than an hour unlike rheumatoid arthritis in which it lasts for more than one hour.
• There are no systemic features in osteoarthritis such as fever, weight loss, fatigue.
• The swelling is less comparatively.
• There is no inflammation in osteoarthritis but present in rheumatoid arthritis.
• There is multiple joint involvement in rheumatoid arthritis but osteoarthritis is limited to few joints.
• The joints effected are symmetrical in rheumatoid arthritis but not in osteoarthritis.

5) Some of the potential nursing diagnosis for patients diagnosed with arthritis or any connective tissue diseases are Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), psoriatic arthritis, sarcoidosis, Sjogren syndrome, osteoarthritis, polymyositis, myelodysplastic syndromes etc.

This is a brief discussion on the given topic. Hope this helps you out. Please feel free to give your feedback and if you need any further elaborate explanation on this topic. Thank you have a great day.