A patient with osteoarthritis at an outpatient appointment. Unresolved problems

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the problems of diagnosis, interdisciplinary interaction and the causes of defects in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis on an outpatient basis, as well as to assess the efficacy and safety of using the medicine from bioactive concentrate of small marine fish, in routine clinical practice in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The results of an out-patient reception hours with a rheumatologist and case histories of 2312 patients with a referral diagnosis of osteoarthritis of various localization were analyzed. It turned out that 47% of all referrals to a rheumatologist with a referral diagnosis of osteoarthritis can be regarded as unfounded. It was found that 45% of patients, even with an established reliable diagnosis of osteoarthritis, on an out-patient basis, therapy was not prescribed in full and did not comply with the recommendations for the management of this category of patients. After 2 courses (within a year) of treatment with a drug based on a bioactive concentrate of small marine fish, 67% of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee joints were satisfied with the effect of therapy, noting a decrease in pain intensity, an improvement in knee joint function and quality of life. No adverse events were reported in the observation group. Despite the fact that at present the problem of osteoarthritis is well covered, in real clinical practice at the stage of primary care physicians often face difficulties in solving both diagnostic and therapeutic problems. In this regard, there is an urgent need to revise and adapt to the routine outpatient practice of interdisciplinary algorithms for managing patients with osteoarthritis, with the determination of the intervention threshold of a primary care physician and a specialist physician. However, there is a need to develop and introduce into routine clinical practice optimized scales/ questionnaires for dynamic assessment of the quality of life of patients with knee osteoarthritis. The study demonstrates a fairly high efficacy, safety and availability of a drug based on a bioactive concentrate of small marine fish, and treatment with this drug can be widely used in the complex therapy of osteoarthritis of the knee joints.