Medication for osteoarthritis can include drugs administered orally (by mouth) and others for local use (on the skin or by injection into the joint).
- Oral medications are:
- analgesics that act on pain;
- anti-inflammatory drugs that act on inflammation and pain;
- symptomatic slow-acting drugs whose goal is to reduce the symptoms. The effects appear only after several weeks of administration, but persist for several weeks after stopping the treatment.
- Topical medications are:
- anti-inflammatory ointments applied locally and in the form of a solution injected into the joint;
- lubricants (hyaluronic acid), close to synovial fluid, injected into the knee joint
