Nursing Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay Research Paper (Essay Sample)

Introduction
The arthritis that occurs most commonly is osteoarthritis or OA, which is a crippling, late- onset and degenerative disease. The characteristics of the disease include synovial inflammation, loss of articular cartilage that results in the stiffness of joints, swelling, loss of mobility and pain. OA leads to destruction of tissues most importantly, the progressive destruction of the articular cartilage. The surface of joint cartilage is the first defensive and affected site of OA, and leads to disability such as affecting joints of knees, hips and hands.(Jia et.al, 2016). In addition to this, OA also leads to alterations in joint tissues that include synovium, subchondral bone and ligaments. With the increasing age, the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) increases and adults over the age of 65 years at a percentage of 30 to 50% suffer from this condition. The pathogenesis of OA is associated with cytokines, chemokines, other aspects of immune system and integral cells and proteins also has a role.