Management goals for osteoarthritis

Bannuru, 2019Fernandes, 2013Kloppenburg, 2019Kolasinski, 2020Sakellariou, 2017Stoffer, 2015The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), 2018

Patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis should be followed up through all stages of the disease. There is no cure or proven disease-modifying treatment for osteoarthritis. The following goals of management are relevant at all stages of the disease and should be individualised to the patient:

• optimise pain management, including a plan to manage periods of increased symptoms (sometimes referred to as a ‘bad day’ management plan)
• maintain and optimise physical function
• maintain and optimise ability to perform daily activities (eg participation in social, recreational and occupational activities)
• minimise associated disability
• maximise health-related quality of life.

Disease progression is often not linear and does not always correlate with symptoms. For this reason, it is important that treatment plans include ‘bad day’ pain management plans.