Osteoarthritis historical perspective
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief:
Overview
Osteoarthritis / Osteoarthrosis (OA, also known as degenerative joint disease, degenerative arthritis, arthrosis or in more colloquial terms "wear and tear") is the most common form of arthritis, caused by wearing of the cartilage that covers and cushions joint spaces. As the cartilage wears away, the patient experiences pain with weight bearing, including walking and standing. This word is derived from the Greek word "osteo", meaning "of the bone", "arthro", meaning "joint", and "itis", meaning inflammation, meanwhile, inflammation is not a common finding in this regard. OA possesses a great degree of variability in disease onset, progression, and severity. The earliest descriptions of OA were provided by Heberden and Haygarth in the 19th century. [3] [4] In the 1930s and 1940s, Dr. Stecher showed that there were two forms of OA, idiopathic and post-traumatic. [5] And, in the 1950s the links between Heberden’s nodes and large joint OA were revealed by Kellgren and Moore. In this regard, the first x-ray grading system for OA was developed by Jonas Kellgren and John Lawrence in the 1950s. Surgical management of OA was developed in the 1960s by Drs. Charnley and McKee
Historical Perspective
The historical view of osteoarthritis from antiquity to the present year has interestingly conventional perspective which can be found among: paleopathological findings about skeletal discoveries, plenty of historical literature's, visual representations found among artworks. Considering the historical findings about the osteoarthritis (such as evidences revealed in dinosaurs skeletons for example in a 200 million year old Dimetrodon Permian reptile recovered in Texas, USA there was an interesting evidence of a compound fracture in its spine which was infected with pus formation), osteoarthritis can be called as the oldest known disease on earth. According to the available evidences, osteoarthritis (OA) has been called by different terminologies: arthrosis deformans, osteoarthrosis-osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, morbus (malum) coxae seniles; Meanwhile, loss of cartilage associated with it bone features (such as osteophytes and subchondral bone sclerosis) is common among all types of OA. As mentioned before this illness has been called by many names over the years but None of them was entirely satisfactory for this condition. Despise of this fact that the word "Osteoarthritis" is a misnomer because it implies a definite existence of an inflammatory process, It has been used for many decades in the English language and will probably continue to do so because it has a well known appeal comparing with other more accurate terms of degenerative joint disease. But, totally, Osteoarthritis is considered as a non-inflammatory disease of movable joints characterized by possible formation of new bone at the articular surface and subchondral bone involvement with the abrasion and deterioration of involved articular cartilages.
Historical evidences revealed that all forms of arthritis were considered to be clinical presentations of gout.
In 1802, William Heberden in his book named "Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases" has described a disease which had no connection with gout. He also described the small nodes which later we know those nodes with his name.
In 1793, Sandifort of Leiden described osteoarthrosis of the hip.
in 1805, John Haygarth have done a great work in descripting of a polyarticular disease affecting the distal interphalangeal and other joints, resembling almost perfectly OA as seen in our present modern society.5
in 1824, Bell, similar to Sandifort in 1793, have described osteoarthrosis of the hip.
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Benjamin C Brodie, professor of surgery in London (1829), was one of the earliest to appreciate a non-inflammatory erosion of articular cartilage peculiar to the elderly.6 His contemporary in Paris, J V Cruveilhier (1835), and probably Cruveilhier’s mentor Laennec (inventor of the stethoscope) applied the term usure to defects in the articular cartilage of diseased joints. This word has no precise equivalent in English but is akin to “using up” or “wearing away”, and is still frequently used in the German and French literature to denote osteoarthritic erosion. Cruveilhier, however, considered them inflammatory rather than abrasive lesions.7 8
A major advance in the appreciation of degenerative joint disease as a disorder sui generis came with the description of malum coxae senilis, osteoarthritis of the hip, by Robert Smith in 1835.9 It was distinguished from polyarticular rheumatoid arthritis by its localised character (hence the often used name “partial” rheumatic arthritis, contrasted with “rheumatic arthritis of all joints”). The exact origins of the concept are veiled in some uncertainty because they overlapped with the recognition of certain other deforming lesions of the head of the femur. It is usually ascribed to Robert Adams, who presented it in a lecture in Dublin in 1831. This account won rapid acceptance in many parts of Europe. Several monographs (eg, Schöman’s from 1851), acknowledging Adams’ priority, were published considerably in advance of his own in 1857.10
In continental Europe, Charcot and Virchow, the fathers of cellular pathology, used the term “arthritis deformans” (1869) for both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.11 12
The disease was granted its current title of “osteoarthritis” by A E Garrod in 1890, and finally and authoritatively in one separated from the other form of arthritides in the 1907 edition of Albutt and Rolleston’s System of Medicine in which he describes them separately, each with its own special pathology.13
Soon after the introduction of X-rays by Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen in 1895, Goldthwaite and others were able to distinguish two main forms of chronic arthritis: an “atrophic” form, which was often polyarticular, occurring in young people, and a “hypertrophic” from, occurring in fewer joints in young people. Atrophic and hypertrophic arthritis were subsequently renamed as rheumatoid disease and osteoarthritis, respectively, the terms “osteoarthritis” and “hypertrophic arthritis” referring to the extensive new bone formation and capsular thickening seen in OA diseases (OADs).14
In 1952, Kellgren and Moore linked Heberden noduli to osteoarthritis, naming it primary generalised OA, to differentiate it from secondary OA of single traumatised joints. Kellgren and Lawrence, working in Manchester in the 1950s and 1960s, put the importance firmly on the agenda with their radiographic scoring system that allowed them and Hans Valkenburg’s team in 1989 to provide the descriptive epidemiology of the condition.15 16
The association with age, and with preceding description trauma, was also recognised in the seminal pathological description by Collins (1953) and others.17