Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about osteoarthritis.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero definals.com slash osteoarthritis

or in the ear, nose and throat section of the zero definals surgery book.

So let's get straight into it.

Osteoarthritis is often described as wear and tear in the joints.

It's not an inflammatory condition like rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis occurs in the synovial joints and results from a combination of genetic factors, overuse and injury. It's thought

to be the result of an imbalance between the cartilage wearing down and the chondrocytes repairing it,

leading to structural issues in the joint.

Risk factors for osteoarthritis include obesity, age, occupation, trauma, being female and a family history of osteoarthritis. Let's go through the commonly affected joints. The joints where you'll most often see osteoarthritis. Let's go through the commonly affected joints. The joints where you'll most

often see osteoarthritis are the hips, knees, sacro-yliac joints, distal interphalangeal or DIP

joints in the hands, the carpometacarpal or CMC joint at the base of the thumb, the wrist and the cervical spine.

Osteoarthritis in the cervical spine is often called cervical spondylosis.

Next let's talk about the four key x-ray changes that you'll see in osteoarthritis, and you can remember these

with the mnemonic loss. L stands for loss of joint space, O stands for osteophytes, which are bone spurs,

S stands for subarticular sclerosis, which is increased density of the bone along the joint line.

And the final S is subcondral cysts, which are fluid-filled holes in the bone.

The x-ray changes in osteoarthritis do not necessarily correlate with symptoms.

Significant x-ray changes might be found incidentally in someone

who doesn't have any symptoms. Equally, someone with severe symptoms of osteoarthritis may only have

mild changes on an x-ray. Let's talk about the presentation. Osteoarthritis presents with

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