The pain in primary osteoarthritis of the knee: Its causes and treatment by osteotomy

Abstract

Much of the pathology of primary osteoarthritis has been unravelled. The present study was carried out in an attempt to answer two questions: What produces the pain in osteoarthritis? and Why is the pain so often relieved by osteotomy? I believe that the answers to these questions shed light on the ætiology of primary osteoarthritis. The knee joint was selected for this investigation because it is affected by primary osteoarthritis more frequently than any other joint (Kellgren, Lawrence, Aitken and Swan, 1957). Indeed, a study of human remains of the archaic period of Egyptian civilization (3000 BC) reveals that, even then, the knee was the joint most frequently damaged by osteoarthritis. (Ruffer, 1921).