Current treatment steps

Current treatment steps

Step 1

At early diagnosis of mild knee osteoarthritis, the patient receives instruction to do physical therapy and use paracetamol (rescue analgesic). If symptoms remain, topical NSAIDs and regular exercise are prescribed.

Step 2 – novel SYN321 therapy

As a second-line treatment intermittent or continuous oral NSAIDs (non-selective, COX-2 selective, naproxen, etc.) are given as symptom reliever. If additional treatment is needed, the patient can receive either intraarticular hyaluronan or intraarticular corticosteroids. This step is where use of SYN321 could be initiated.

Step 3

For the moderate progression stage of knee osteoarthritis, the symptoms and pain from the breakdown of joint cartilage can be relieved with weak and short-term opioids and continued injections as in step 2.

Step 4

Once the disease has reached the point of completely broken-down joint cartilage, none of the previous treatment steps can reduce the symptoms enough. The final treatment option for severe osteoarthritis is joint replacement surgery.