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Therapy

Are you managing osteoarthritis appropriately?

For patients with osteoarthritis, the current palliative approach of analgesic prescription followed by joint replacement is often inappropriate. Instead, care should be tailored to the needs of individuals and targeted towards the central complaints of pain and functional limitation. So why are we still getting it wrong?

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Figure 1: Principles for the diagnosis and management of osteoarthritis.

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Acknowledgements

The work of D.J.H. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellowship.

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Correspondence to David J. Hunter.

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D.J.H. declares that he is currently acting as a consultant to Flexion, Merck Serono and Tissuegene. J.L.B. declares no competing interests.

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Hunter, D., Bowden, J. Are you managing osteoarthritis appropriately?. Nat Rev Rheumatol 13, 703–704 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2017.160

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