Arthritis Specialist

What are the most common types of arthritis?

Arthritis is a generic word referring to joint inflammation, a condition that includes many different joint conditions. Of all the different types of arthritis, however, the two most common are:

Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis develops over years of daily wear-and-tear that breaks down cartilage. As the cartilage wears away, bone rubs against bone, leading to bone damage and inflammation. Osteoarthritis can affect any joint, but it’s most common in weight-bearing joints such as your knees and hips.

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder that develops when your immune system attacks the synovium, a soft tissue that lines your joints. As a result, the tissue becomes chronically inflamed. Ongoing inflammation erodes the bone and causes joint deformities.

When rheumatoid arthritis first appears, it typically affects small joints, such as your fingers and toes. From there, the inflammation can spread to other joints and to organs and tissues throughout your body, including your eyes, skin, lungs, and blood vessels.

What symptoms develop due to arthritis?

Patients with arthritis experience:

• Painful joints
• Stiff joints
• Limited movement
• Swelling

Both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are known for causing morning stiffness.

How is arthritis treated?

Even if treatments such as steroid and hyaluronic acid injections have failed to relieve your pain, joint replacement surgery doesn’t need to be your next step. Before you consider surgery, talk with Dr. Mukalel about the effective options he offers, such as: 

Regenerative medicine

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) can reverse the damage caused by arthritis. Dr. Mukalel uses real-time imaging to precisely inject PRP and BMAC into the joint. Platelets trigger your body’s natural healing response, while the stem cells in BMAC regenerate new tissues like cartilage, bones, muscles, and tendons. 

Interventional procedures

Interventional procedures relieve your symptoms by blocking pain signals that normally travel through nerves to your brain. Dr. Mukalel may recommend a procedure such as radiofrequency nerve ablation as first line therapy for chronic arthritic spine, neck, lower back, buttocks, hip, knee or shoulder pains.

If a diagnostic nerve block provides temporary relief from the pain of knee, hip, shoulder, or spine arthritis, then a radiofrequency ablation will diminish your pain for nine months to two years, depending on how much restorative physical therapy you do after your ablation.

Medication and ablation

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis should take medications like disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, which can slow down the progression and prevent permanent joint damage. Dr. Mukalel often uses ablation treatments together with rheumatoid arthritis medications to successfully relieve your pain while treating the underlying disease.

Joint replacement surgery

Dr. Mukalel can help alleviate your arthritis pain in many cases, but he may recommend that you consider joint replacement surgery if you lose range of motion and can’t move the joint.

You don’t need to suffer from arthritis pain any longer. Call Jessen Mukalel, MD, or book an appointment online to learn more about effective treatment options.