Osteoarthritis, osteoarthrosis and osteoarthropathy: What is the difference?

Abstract

Osteoarthritis, osteoarthrosis, and osteoarthropathy are diseases that doctors encounter daily in their practice. The use of all three terms is customary, often without a clear justification as to why a particular term is used for a particular case. In the past several decades, doctors mainly differentiated among these diseases based on clinical presentation and radiography. In the past several years, however, significant progress has been made in the field of biochemical, immunological, and cytohistological research, which has provided explanations for the pathogenesis of these conditions, enabled defining differences amongst them and facilitated the use of appropriate terms for each one of these diseases. The term arthritis (osteoarthritis) should be used exclusively for primarily inflammatory joint diseases-rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, reactive arthritis (Reiter's syndrome). If the etiology is infectious, this must also be emphasized-septic (purulent) arthritis, tuberculous arthritis. Arthrosis (osteoarthrosis) relates to changes in the joints occurring due to pathological processes within the joint itself, but which, in their basis, are not inflammatory. Arthropathy is a term for joint disease stemming from another diseased organ or system of organs.