[The feasibility of the application of cryotherapy and radonotherapy for the treatment of the patients presenting with osteoarthritis].

Osteoarthritis (OA) is currently considered to be one of the most widespread diseases. Its main clinical symptoms include pain and dysfunction of joints. In the present review of the foreign and domestic literature, the questions of pathogenesis and risk factors underlying the development of osteoarthritis are discussed. The understanding of OA pathogenesis have altered essentially in the recent years which made necessary the search for the novel approaches to the treatment of this pathology. According to the modern views of OA origin and progression, its therapy should be based on the application of the combination of medicamentous and non-medicamentous modalities including, in particular, collective and individual activities focused on the implementation of the programs of therapeutic physical training as an obligatory component of ОА prophylaxis and treatment. The present review gives evidence of the feasibility of the application of the methods of cryotherapy and radonotherapy for the management of the patients suffering from osteoarthritis. It is emphasized that many recent publications report extensive investigations of the clinical and pathogenetic aspects of the application of these methods for the combined regenerative treatment of the patients presenting with gonarthrosis. The influence of cryotherapy and radonotherapy on the neuroendocrine and immune systems is discussed with special reference to the possibility of regulation of the metabolic processes and retardation of inflammation. It is concluded that the introduction of the above methods into the compulsory individual program for the regenerative treatment of patients presenting with osteoarthritis is pathologically substantiated since it greatly contributes to the reduction of pain and retardation of the progress of the disease. The main pharmaceutical preparations for the OA treatment remain to be slow-acting symptomatic medicines possessed of the chondro-protective effect.