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Diagnosing Traumatic Arthritis
Arthritis is a very painful disease and one that can only be controlled and managed, but not cured. On the other hand, traumatic arthritis is a totally curable ailment. Here, the important thing is the correct diagnosis. There are many ways by which the post-traumatic osteoarthritis can be diagnosed. There is a very fine line between the actual full-blown arthritis and traumatic arthritis - and only careful observation and investigations would lead to the correct diagnosis.
The Factors That Lead To The Correct Diagnosis Of Traumatic Arthritis
The first thing that one should keep in mind is the basic difference between the regular arthritis and traumatic arthritis, i.e. the latter develops as a result of a trauma while the former develops gradually without any apparent outside reason. The trauma or damage could have been caused as long ago as 2-5 years after the joint is injured.
Hence, it is very important to remember if in the past (consider the period of past five years) there had been any major injury to the particular joint, bone, cartilage or tendon that needed medical intervention. Sometimes, such an injury causes fast bone degeneration and blossoms into the symptoms of arthritis; sometimes the deterioration is very slow and hence surfaces years after the injury.
Sometimes pain comes and goes over along period of time, but it does not bother you enough to consult a doctor. The pain may or may not be accompanied by inflammation of the joint or surrounding area. Often the symptoms would disappear without any major medical intervention, only to re-appear after a while.
Any injury to any bone can lead to traumatic arthritis. If you have a history of this disease in your family, it would be very wise to keep a note on when and how such injury took place, so the record can be brought out and shown to the doctor when any inflammation of joint occurs and it is suspected to be arthritis.
The doctor should be informed if there has been such injury so the correct investigative measures are employed to identify the disease. You should also observe whether similar symptoms are manifested with other parts of the body. If yes, then it might not be traumatic arthritis.
If not, then further investigation can be done to rule out any possibility of mistaken diagnosis. Normally, an MRI would be a good test to pinpoint the exact condition of the joint.
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