Knee Osteoarthritis, Pain Anxiety and Falls Interactions: Overview, Implications, and Emergency Medicine Opportunities

Abstract

Ray Marks

Knee osteoarthritis, the most common form of this disabling joint disease is often associated with an increased tendency to fall and sustain various degrees of injury or injuries that hasten joint attrition as well as tendency towards recurrent falls. But what does the current research show specifically? Building on former efforts using the PUBMED data base and others, we have observed a strong link between the presence of a high falls risk and osteoarthritis of the knee that may stem from features of the disease such as possible pain anxiety. These linkages that may be bidirectional-that can hasten a form of post traumatic knee joint destruction that can only be partially remedied by surgery. Even then, emergent or ongoing unrelenting bouts of pain anxiety may seriously undermine this effort as well as ensure a high rate of recurrent falls. This overview elaborates on pain-anxiety and its linkages with falls that induce great suffering and widespread costly public health implications, including excess Emergency Room visits and resource usage.

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