Difficulties in the treatment of primary osteoarthritis

Abstract

Management of patients with primary osteoarthritis (OA) is often a difficult task due to the specifics of the course of the disease, comorbidity, and low compliance of patients to treatment methods, including symptomatic slow acting drugs (SYSADOA). More than half of the surveyed practitioners (62.2%) express doubts about patients’ adherence to SYSADOA treatment. The described clinical observation demonstrates difficulties in the treatment of primary OA in a patient with comorbidity and low compliance. A three-year course therapy of orally administered SYSADOA did not have a significant effect, and new joints were involved in the process. Thus, the patient was offered a shorter course of therapy (10 injections) with a drug from the SYSADOA group. Its active component is a bioactive extractextract from a small sea fish (Ambene® Bio), created using a unique patented technology. There have been studies of the drug and its clinical efficacy described in literature. In the described case, a short course of therapy contributed to an increase in compliance to treatment. A repeated course of 10 injections every other day was carried out after 6 months. At the same time, the patient refused to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Subjective improvement was confirmed by laboratory and instrumental methods.