Complex treatment options of hip osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis has the highest prevalence among the musculoskeletal diseases in all economically developed countries. Despite the improvement of diagnostic and treatment methods, the number of patients with osteoarthritis is increasing. The number of cases of newly diagnosed osteoarthritis, cases of disease progression and subsequent disability are also growing. There are many guidelines for treatment of osteoarthritis, however, specialists have no consensus, especially regarding the amount and duration of conservative therapy.

The aim of the study was to analyze publications providing complex treatment options of hip osteoarthritis.

A systematic literature review has been conducted by means of the open acccess Pub-Med/MEDLINE database and eLibrary search for the period until January 2022. The search depth was 20 years and was performed by keywords and phrases: “hip joint osteoarthritis”, “conservative treatment”, “minimally invasive surgery”, “total hip arthroplasty”.

Unfortunately, the screening criteria for patients with osteoarthritis for total hip arthroplasty are not developed. The review analyzes the options of conservative therapy and minimally invasive surgical treatment for patients with osteoarthritis as the opportunity to avoid or delay the total hip replacement. The hip arthroplasty is not considered the “gold” standard; joint decision on surgery based on a comprehensive approach is made only when all the possibilities of conservative therapy are exhausted.

It is widely believed that complex treatment using modern conservative and organ-preserving methods is the most common strategy for managing osteoarthritis of the hip joint. This approach improves clinical and functional condition of patients and slows down the progression of the disease.