First, let’s take a look at the following several risk factors for osteoarthritis, have you been hit? 1. Age: Osteoarthritis is a common and frequent disease, as well as a degenerative disease, which is a local manifestation of the overall aging of the body in the joints. Similar to skin aging, almost everyone has the possibility of developing osteoarthritis. According to statistics, about 62% of people over 60 years of age in China suffer from osteoarthritis, and the prevalence of people over 75 years of age is as high as 80%. 2. Trauma: People who have had ligament damage, meniscus damage, intra-articular fractures or knee surgery have a much higher chance of getting osteoarthritis than their peers, and the age of onset is also earlier. 3, congenital factors: Some people are born with inversion or valgus knee, resulting in uneven weight-bearing on the knee joint, one side than the other side of the weight concentration, which will increase the risk of arthritis in the corresponding parts. 4, special diseases: large osteoarthrosis, gout, vitiligo, psoriasis and other diseases are also prone to joint damage and early arthritis symptoms. 5, occupational factors: athletes in special events, such as weightlifting, cross-country, long-distance running athletes will be more serious than the average person’s joint weight, wear and tear, the risk of osteoarthritis will also be high. In osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis of the knee joint is particularly common because the knee joint is the main weight-bearing joint of the human body, the most prone to wear and aging. Especially in recent years, the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee has been on the rise as society ages. However, due to the lack of understanding of this disease, there are two extreme situations that are often encountered when seeing a doctor: one is a patient with a relatively mild condition who is overly anxious and worried, and the other is a patient with a serious condition that requires surgery, but because of misconceptions about surgery, would rather have a serious impact on quality of life than undergo surgery. So, once you have osteoarthritis of the knee, what should you do? The most scientific should be a stepwise treatment, that is, depending on the severity of the disease and the length of time of onset, choose the appropriate conservative treatment or surgery. 1. When mild: Symptoms are just present and occur intermittently, such as discomfort in the joints when the weather changes or when it is cold, a feeling of friction, and sometimes stiffness and weakness. At this time, conservative treatment is more appropriate, such as adjusting lifestyle and exercise patterns, avoiding movements or sports that increase the weight on the knee joint, such as climbing mountains, climbing stairs, squatting, kneeling, etc.; and strengthening thigh muscle strength training, such as straight leg raising exercises, and supplementing physical therapy, such as hot compresses, baking electricity, many patients with mild disease have successfully reduced symptoms and slowed the development of the disease through the above methods. 2. In moderate cases: joint pain, swelling, enlargement, deformation, and pain when walking. This requires intermittent treatment with additional anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, supplemented by crutches to reduce the weight bearing on the joint. If this can relieve or control joint pain and meet the individual’s needs for daily work life, surgical treatment is not required. If the pain is still not relieved after taking anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, or if the drugs are effective, but the pain is obvious once the drugs are stopped, which seriously affects the quality of life, surgery should be considered. There are many surgical treatments, including minimally invasive arthroscopic cleanup, osteotomy deformity correction, unicondylar surface replacement and total knee surface replacement, each of which has indications, mainly with reference to the severity of osteoarthritis.