What is osteoarthritis of the knee and what symptoms does it cause?
Osteoarthritis is a disease that affects 40% of people over 70 years of age in our country and 70% of people over 55 years of age show some onset of osteoarthritis in X-rays (approximately 4 million people in Spain).
Osteoarthritis is a painful and degenerative disease (i.e. it has no cure and is becoming more and more common) of the knee joint (as well as the hip and shoulder joints) caused by wear and tear of the cartilage of this joint; this cartilage functions as a “shock absorber”.
What does ozone treatment consist of?
The treatment I use in my practice is medical ozone therapy, the infiltration of a mixture of oxygen and ozone into the knee joint. This causes the joint to deflate, eliminating pain, improving mobility and quality of life of the patient with osteoarthritis.
How many ozone treatment sessions are necessary for knee osteoarthritis?
The treatment consists of one or two weekly injections of a mixture of ozone and oxygen directly into the affected knee for 3 to 5 weeks, depending on the patient’s condition.
What are the advantages of intrarticular ozone treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee?
The injections have no side effects and the patient begins to notice improvement immediately, decreasing pain and recovering mobility, being able, in most cases, to stop taking anti-inflammatory pain pills.
The biggest advantage of ozone treatment in my practice is that the patient can access without prior medication, perform the treatment and return home on their own feet, without the need to be accompanied.
Why is intrarticular ozone treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee so promising?
Thanks to the multiple action of ozone, it not only modulates inflammation, but also has an anabolic effect.
Recent clinical studies have shown that intra-articular ozone improves pain, function and stiffness, and improves joint space in the medial and lateral compartments in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
It is important to remember that osteoarthritis is a disease that cannot be cured, so infiltrated ozone does not cure the disease, what it does is to delay its evolution, reducing inflammation and pain and, therefore, recover mobility and quality of life. In the worst case, if osteoarthritis is severe, it can delay surgery for prosthesis placement.