That’s sort of the way post-traumatic arthritis works, says Joshua Baker, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Philadelphia. Break a bone playing sports as a teenager or tear a ligament while running, and you could end up with arthritis in that joint several years later. As many as 15 percent of people who have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis may have developed joint problems as a result of injury. Damaging a joint raises your chances of developing arthritis sevenfold, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. How does one affect the other? A bone fracture that involves a joint, such as your knee, causes a break in the gliding surface, says Louis Kwong, MD, chairman and program director of the department of orthopaedic surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. Even when the alignment is restored through surgery or after healing in a cast, you’re more likely to develop arthritis in that joint in the years to come. The same thing can happen when there’s injury to a ligament or tendon. There are a few clues doctors use to find out whether your arthritis is a result of physical trauma or the run-of-the-mill wear and tear that happens with age. For one, typical osteoarthritis is more often seen in people who are in their sixties or older, Dr. Kwong says. When a younger person has it, doctors are more likely to suspect trauma. Another clue: Arthritis in an isolated joint more often points to post-traumatic arthritis, while symptoms in multiple joints suggest inflammatory types of arthritis, Kwong says.
Arthritis and Physical Trauma
A classic example of someone with post-traumatic arthritis is the high school athlete who tears a ligament or cartilage in his or her knee and ends up with arthritis, sometimes decades later, Kwong says. Even when doctors treat the injury immediately after it happens, treatment can’t make it as though the injury never happened, he says. Almost any sport can cause a fracture or injure a ligament or tendon. Quickly changing direction on the soccer field, stopping suddenly while playing tennis, landing the wrong way on the basketball court, or crashing into another player can all lead to sprains or tears of a knee ligament and arthritis later on. An injury sustained in a car accident is another type that could cause post-traumatic arthritis, Kwong says. Your knee or ankles could be crushed, your wrist sprained, a hand broken, or your back could become strained as a result of a sudden jolt. Even a relatively minor event could eventually lead to arthritis — an ankle sprained while hiking or a slip on ice that leads to a fracture.
How to Protect Yourself From Arthritis Damage
You can slow the progression of arthritis by keeping your body weight within a healthy range and exercising, Kwong says. He also encourages people to be conscious of the stress they put on their joints every day. If two men have high school football injuries and one goes on to have a desk job while the other is a construction worker, the construction worker is more likely to get early arthritis, Kwong says. In a 2010 study of nearly 2,500 people in Iceland, researchers found that men with strenuous occupations such as farming and fishing were more likely to need total knee replacement or total hip replacement surgery because of osteoarthritis, compared to managers and professionals in non-strenuous occupations. When osteoarthritis does develop, it’s treated with exercise, therapy, and pain control, Dr. Casey says. Inflammatory arthritis is treated with medications that work best for that type of arthritis. In cases of severe arthritis, joint replacement may be needed. “I always tell patients that they are experts in their own body,” Kwong says. “Patients know when something is okay or not.” If you’re having joint trouble, it’s best to see your doctor.
