What Is Arthrodesis And How Is It Used To Treat Pain Resulting From Osteoarthritis?
Dr. Matthew Squire answers the question: 'Arthrodesis For Osteoarthritis Pain?'
— -- Question: What is arthrodesis and how is it used to treat pain resulting from osteoarthritis?
Answer: Arthrodesis is a technique by which surgeons make a joint surgically stiff. This is a widely-accepted technique within the orthopedic surgeons' community and it is shown that it is quite affective over time. Arthrodesis, however, is limited to a certain number of joints within the body.
Most arthrodesis surgeries take place in either the wrist or hands or the foot or ankle. In rare cases arthrodesis might be indicated for shoulder pain, hip pain, or knee pain, but as stated before these are very rare cases.
In short arthrodesis tries to make the bones of a joint grow together so that the joint motion in that joint that causes a patient pain is eliminated. There are a variety of techniques by which this is performed, most often this is performed with the insertion of some form of what orthopedic surgeons call hardware, which is either a plate and or screws and potentially bone graft. In short, patients with severe wrist or hand arthritis might consider this a technique by which to alleviate their pain and as well patients with severe foot or ankle arthritis might see this form of intervention.