What is knee osteoarthritis?

Good evening Professor Goss, can you please tell us what osteoarthritis of the knee is? Osteoarthritis of the knee is in simple terms wear and tear of the knee where the cartilage inside the knee joint wears out. It is classified into grades, there are several classifications, the simplest of which is mild, moderate or severe depending on the level of wear and tear in the cartilage. It's associated with certain symptoms and certain findings when we examine a patient. The first symptom is pain and the pain usually is on the medial joint line or the inner aspect of the knee. It can be on the outside of the knee as well and it can be on the front of the knee but the commonest area is the medial side of the This can be associated with swelling, stiffness, discomfort when walking and limiting the ability to walk especially uphill or downhill, going up and down the stairs can be difficult, twisting movements can be difficult and sometimes if worst case scenario you will start to see deformity if things get worse and this will also be associated with pain at night and pain at rest if it becomes fairly severe in the advanced stages of osteoarthritis. There are certain criteria both clinical and radiological that we look at when we examine for osteoarthritis of the knee. The clinical findings are the symptoms and then the signs are the joints itself can be affected by pain when feeling the joint, especially on the inner aspect. The kneecap or the patellofemoral joint can also be affected and that can lead to crepitus or creaking or joint sounds or clicking. There can also be a deformity in the knee, usually what we call a varus where the knee curves to the inner aspect and then there can also be associated finding of stiffness and discomfort and what we call a painful arc when the knee is mobilized. And then we normally ask about questions regarding to activities of daily living and we look at the functional scores such as the Oxford knee score to try and grade the severity and level of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is very common, it is a challenge and it can be very debilitating to patients.