One of the most common causes of knee pain is osteoarthritis (OA), a disease causing a gradual breakdown of the cartilage in in the knee joints. Knee OA is rapidly increasing among the population and is nowadays one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. No cure is currently available for osteoarthritis, but a number of treatment options to manage the disease’s progression, both conservative and invasive, are recommended in the literature and current guidelines.

The goal of this seminar is to provide doctors in the first line of care with a comprehensive overview of the disease incidence, prevalence and trend in the Netherlands, to present key facts about the disease underlying causes and progression and illustrate the most authoritative treatment guidelines available in the country as well as internationally to optimally manage the disease in clinical practice. The golden standard of treatment in the Netherlands is crystalized in the NOV (2007) and NHG Guidelines (2008) while more recently published international guidelines (OARSI, ACR, AAOS, NICE) include a focus on the conservative management of the disease for different patient groups. The key results and advice points of the 2014 Zinnige Zorg report from ZN are also presented, and the program illustrates available treatment options for the conservative management of the disease in the first line of care, focusing on core treatments (body weight management, education and exercise) and subsequently presenting complementary options to support the disease management, including pharmacological as well as non pharmacological alternatives. Among the latter, we include a focus on unloading braces and present the available clinical evidence on unloading as a complementary treatment, while the practical implementation of a stepped strategy is illustrated in one presentation focusing on the research and results of the BART (Beating Osteoarthritis) project on the implementation of a stepped care strategy to manage hip and knee osteoarthritis in clinical practice.