Osteoarthritis Specialist Centres - UK south

[badpiglet]

I'm posting this on more than one forum, as osteoarthritis is such a common condition.

Just wondered if anyone can recommend a specialist centre for osteoarthritis in the south of the UK? I have genetic nodal osteoarthritis of the hands and the centres that seem to specialise or be interested in this form of OA all seem to be in the north.

I'm in Devon but would happily travel to Bristol/Bath, Cardiff, Oxford, London if there's a hospital someone could vouch for.

On another subject, I'm also wondering why I've been recommended a medicine called Cartrophen (sodium pentosan polysulfate) to help prevent arthritis from starting IN MY DOG. But apart from a trial (successful) in humans with knee OA, I can't see that there have been any further trials or that it is used to help prevent OA in humans, apart from treating human cystitis! Anyone have any other knowledge about this drug, sodium pentosan polysulfate? It sounded really interesting.

[Boysanboys59]

Hi, I all so have bad ostio in all my joints so I can sympathise with you, I only have painkillers for this, awaiting both knee replacements, I go to the l an d hospital in LUTON for this. As for cartrophen injections I wouldn't touch them, maybe not relevant to humans but my bearded collie had a course of them for a while ,and whizzed around.and after the course stopped his arthritis was much worse , so if I had to think over again I wouldn't touch it,wishing you luck in finding something to help your pain .

[badpiglet in reply to Boysanboys59]

Thanks Boys,

I'm not sure I'd wish an active collie dog on you when all your joints are affected! Collies are fantastic dogs but there's no let-up - unless of course they get arthritis too like yours.

I did wonder if cartrophen sounded too good to be true.

[spoul]

Hi there I think your on the wrong forum.......this is for pbc.....autoimmune liver disease......all the best 😊

[GrittyReads in reply to spoul]

Hi Spoul,

Osteo is pretty common with PBC. There are quite a few people who post on here who have it. When I saw a PBC Specialist last year - about my bogus PBC diagnosis (I only have AMAs, with lfts and health otherwise pretty perfect for the 23 years since AMAs were noted) he was very concerned to check my full medical history (and that of my parents, etc) and osteo was one of the things he asked about. As Badpiglet says, she's posting on a lot of sites, just in case anyone who has it knows of good treatment in the South.

Take care

[spoul in reply to GrittyReads]

Sorry I didn't realise you had pbc too! No offence just thought you may get more info from a dedicated forum x

[badpiglet in reply to spoul]

Hi Spoul,

No worries! Thank you for trying to point me the right way though. I'm AMA M2 positive and go on this forum because, despite not being a pessimist normally, I don't like the odds of me having a fit liver for the next 40 years.

Osteoarthritis has some forums however, the PBC crowd seem to be active and knowledgeable (very!) and as a large proportion of the population will probably get arthritis in some form in their lives, I thought there was a good chance of an overlap. Like PBC, with some types of osteoarthritis, there is a genetic tendency.

Locating the liver experts in the UK seems to be slightly easier that with osteoarthritis - just locate the liver transplant centres and many top specialists will naturally be there. With OA, as it is so very common, most hospitals have a department but very, very few are really thinking outside the box and pushing the long established lines of treatment. Most that seem to are in the north eg Nottingham, Keele, Leeds, Glasgow.