Treatment Patterns of Knee Osteoarthritis in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital: A Retrospective Study

INTRODUCTION:  Osteoarthritis  is a slowly developing progressive disorder that causes the breakdown of cartilage, malfunction of subchondral bone and disturbances in the efficiency of synovial fluid. It is the leading cause of chronic pain and lower extremity disabilities, especially in elderly people. Knee joints is the most commonly affected.

NEED FOR THE STUDY : Knee Osteoarthritis treatment pattern  helps to evaluate the pharmacological and non pharmacological  treatments. It ensures the rational drug use. This data can be helpful in   formulating health care policies and improving the prescribing behavior of clinician. It helps to reduce the risk of drug interaction and improve medication safety.

OBJECTIVES :

To assess  the treatment patterns among knee osteoarthritis patients.

To determine the factors associated with risk of intra-articular steroid injection in knee Osteoarthritis.

METHODOLOGY : A retrospective observational  study  is conducted for 8 months duration. Patients with  greater than and equal to 40 years age with knee osteoarthritis having ICD code of M17. Patients who took admissions on different years, their latest admission will be considered for the study. The data will be collected from medical records department. Ethics committee permission will be obtained before the study.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS  : The data will be summarized using descriptive statistic that is mean plus SD or frequency percentage .The data will be analyzed using the SSPS software version  29.0.

OUTCOME MEASURES : The primary outcome measure includes identifying the  number of Pharmacological & non  pharmacological treatments. The secondary outcome measures include, identifying demographic characteristics, number of comorbidities  and comorbidities  present.