Symptom management for patients awaiting joint replacement surgery

Joint replacement surgery is a highly effective treatment option for patients with severe osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee when other treatments have failed. Unfortunately, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary suspension of non-urgent elective surgery was implemented. Thousands of patients currently awaiting hip and knee replacements have been affected. Many of these patients will present to their general practitioners for symptom management during this interim period.

The purpose of this article is to summarise current recommendations for the non-operative management of patients with symptomatic OA.

Non-operative treatment modalities for OA include education, lifestyle modification and exercise, mass reduction, physiotherapy, orthoses, psychology, pharmaceuticals and injections. Multimodal therapy is required for patients with severe symptoms. A number of useful online resources are presented, as access to public allied health services may be limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.