Arthrosis is a degenerative disease of an evolutionary nature. Initially, it concerns articular cartilage, that is the tissue that covers the surface of the two bones that form the joint and then the bone and the surrounding soft tissues. To illustrate the new guidelines for the management of this pathology is Prof. Stefano Gumina, Director of the Complex Operating Unit of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Sapienza University, Polo Pontino (ICOT – Latina), and President of the Italian Society of Shoulder Surgery and of the Elbow.
Professor Gumina, what are the symptoms of shoulder arthrosis?
The onset is characterized by pain and reduction of movement. As the pathology progresses, pain increases in intensity, is also present at night and intensifies with common daily activities. By moving the arm, the patient feels the showers.
Is it therefore a disabling illness?In the advanced stages of the pathology, yes, yes. Patients with osteoarthritis of the shoulder have difficulty driving, to bring the fork to the mouth, to wash or comb. Often the arthrosis is bilateral, so the quality of life is very compromised.What do you recommend to your patients?Treatment depends on the severity of the arthrosis, the general state of health and the age of the patient, the intensity of the pain and how much the quality of life is compromised. Generally to the fifty-year-old patient, with arthrosis of a slight degree, with poor painful symptomatology and satisfactory arm function, it is advisable to take pain relievers occasionally and to follow physiotherapy programs to alleviate the pain and improve the residual articulation. The patient aged seventy with severe osteoarthritis, with intense pain, with reduced mobility of the upper limb, but in good general condition, could obtain a marked improvement undergoing surgery.
Are you referring to the prosthesis?Exact. There are more types depending on the age of the patient and the presence or absence of rotator cuff tendons. Is shoulder surgery in Italy high-level or whether, as in the past, we have to acknowledge a certain scientific supremacy and greater availability of resources from the countries of northern Europe or the Americans? Shoulder and elbow surgeons in Italy are of the highest level. The prostheses we implant in our country are the same ones that use our European cousins and the Americans. The credibility enjoyed by our surgeons is enormous. If this were not the case, the international scientific committee would never have entrusted Italy (Rome) with the task of organizing the world congress of shoulder and elbow surgery in 2022.
For more info (s.gumina@tiscali.it) (www.laspalla.org)
Study: Rome, Sanatrix Clinic. 06/86321981
