What is the typical treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee?
Dr. Levitt: Depending on the stage of the arthritis, there are a lot of different treatments. When you get to the point where you are no longer a candidate for just medical treatment, in the very early stages of osteoarthritis, the treatment can be arthroscopic surgery or, as we call it, microsurgery. We go in and clean up loose fragments. Usually, when you have arthritis there is further tearing of what is called the meniscus, which can cause pain. It can be corrected with arthroscopic surgery which can be a way to eliminate some of the early symptoms. But it’s only a temporary fix. It is not a permanent cure because we have no way of really regrowing the articular cartilage that covers the end of the bone. As that keeps disintegrating, or disappearing, we cannot make it grow back. So hopefully in 25 … 50 … 100 years, with genetic engineering and with further work in biotechnology, we may be able to regrow it. But right now we have no way of doing that and are not even close to making
