https://medicalxpress.com/orthopedics-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Orthopaedics The hip joint is a well-known point of failure in the human body, especially as we age. It's no wonder the problem is familiar: In the U.S. alone, someone fractures a hip roughly twice every minute; it happens 27 times a minute worldwide. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-endocrinologist-discusses-life-death-stakes.html Thu, 08 Oct 2026 17:00:04 EDT news710684425 Low-dose radiotherapy (LDRT) offers multiple benefits in early knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, held from Sept. 26 to 30 in Boston. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-astro-dose-radiotherapy-potential-early.html Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:40:14 EDT news710684179 Osteoporosis weakens bones and makes them more likely to break. The disease affects about 10 million Americans over age 50, including one in five women. And those numbers are expected to rise as the share of Americans 65 and older climbs from 18.9% to 23.4% by 2060. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-qa-fda-decision-osteoporosis-drugs.html Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:20:01 EDT news710667481 When back or spine problems persist, figuring out where to go for care can be confusing. Should you see a neurosurgeon or an orthopedic surgeon? A neurologist or rehabilitation specialist? And if you see a spine surgeon, does that mean you'll need surgery? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-spine-pain-treatment-surgery.html Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:00:01 EDT news710653082 A minimally invasive ultrasound-guided technique offers long-term relief for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome with fewer side effects than steroids, according to a new study published in Radiology. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-minimally-invasive-technique-relief-carpal.html Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:00:29 EDT news710436661 For millions of people, osteoarthritis slowly breaks down the joints, bringing pain, swelling and stiffness that make free movement harder with time. It is largely a condition of age, with 73% of those living with it older than 55. For years, the wear and tear that comes with aging and physical trauma was considered a major driver of the disease. A recent study published in Science, however, points to a metabolic disease that is also highly common among this demographic as a contributing factor in osteoarthritis progression. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-high-blood-pressure-osteoarthritis-joint.html Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:20:12 EDT news710416649 Electric bike and electric scooter injuries among children and teens increased nearly fourfold at one California hospital between 2019 and 2025, according to research to be presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-fourfold-injuries-electric-bikes-scooters.html Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:00:44 EDT news710068802 One minute you're reaching for an item on a shelf, picking up a child or simply getting out of bed. The next, a sudden stab of pain in your lower back leaves you wondering what just happened. Many people call it "throwing out" their back. The phrase generally describes low back pain that starts suddenly, says Dr. Min Yoo, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona who has subspecialty training in pain medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-10-sudden-pain-expert.html Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:00:06 EDT news710133841 Two major studies by Queen Mary University of London, the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol found that robotic-assisted hip and knee replacement does not reduce the overall early risk of repeat surgery compared with conventional surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-robotic-hip-knee-surgery.html Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:30:02 EDT news709988041 Researchers at Mass General Brigham have found that moderate-intensity exercise alters circulating extracellular vesicles in ways that promote cartilage health and tissue resilience, identifying microRNA-29 as a key mediator that improved characteristics of aged cartilage cells and reduced signs of joint degeneration. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-medicine-joints-aging-osteoarthritis.html Tue, 29 Sep 2026 18:00:02 EDT news709917361 Small tunnels in the spongy (trabecular) part of bone have been known for decades, but their role has remained unclear. Researchers from the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark, together with Danish and international colleagues from the U.S. and Canada, now show that these tunnels are part of a process that renews trabecular bone from within. In the hard outer layer of bone, researchers already know that similar tunnels form as part of the bone renewal process. The new study shows that a comparable process also occurs within the small rods and plates of trabecular bone. The study is published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-overlooked-bone-renewal.html Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:00:12 EDT news709902568 Exercise-based rehabilitation and education can reduce the chance of knee osteoarthritis after ACL reconstruction in people under 40, as well as improve pain and quality of life, a study by La Trobe University researchers has found. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-physical-therapy-short-term-knee.html Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:00:12 EDT news709803884 Low-dose radiation therapy may do more than relieve pain from early knee osteoarthritis, with a long-term analysis suggesting it could also influence how the disease progresses. The findings come from a new analysis of a randomized trial conducted in Russia that followed nearly 300 patients for almost 12 years. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-dose-therapy-knee-osteoarthritis-term.html Sun, 27 Sep 2026 14:20:01 EDT news709538663 The United States will be short by nearly 28,000 surgeons by 2038, according to the first unified assessment of the country's surgical workforce. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-shortage-surgeons-nationwide.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:00:25 EDT news709464123 More than 10 years ago, Håkan Engqvist and Philip Procter began developing a bone glue designed to help repair fractures. Now, the glue has been used on a patient in England for the first time. In early August this year, the bone glue was used on a patient during knee surgery in England. The patient is the first participant in a clinical study evaluating the glue's effectiveness in treating fractures near joints. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-bone-patients-clinical.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 21:20:05 EDT news709216385 Somewhere in the world, a woman over 50 will have fractured a bone by the time you finish reading this sentence due to osteoporosis, a silent bone disease that can weaken the structural integrity of the skeletal system and a person's quality of life. The disease weakens bones and makes them more likely to break because of reduced bone mineral density and bone mass, and it affects an estimated 75 million people across Europe, the USA, and Japan. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-osteoporosis-fractures-fall-small-human.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:30:01 EDT news708777910 Knee osteoarthritis is a widespread and painful joint condition. It causes chronic pain, cartilage breakdown and trouble moving. Doctors rely on X-rays and patient surveys to track how the disease progresses. These traditional methods have a major blind spot. They do not show how a person actually moves during daily life outside a clinical exam. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-wearable-sensors-accurately-track-knee.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 10:40:03 EDT news708769802 An abundance of clinical trials has shown that exercise reduces pain and facilitates everyday activities like climbing stairs for individuals with osteoarthritis. But researchers from the University of South Carolina, McMaster University and the University of Delaware believe it's time for a mindset shift. Instead of viewing exercise as a temporary treatment for the condition, clinicians and patients should view physical activity as a lifelong behavior. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-it-time-to-change-how.html Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:40:07 EDT news708262449 Two UCLA Health doctors, both faculty in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and team physicians for UCLA Athletics and professional sports teams, are accompanying the 2026 U.S. Basketball Women's National Team at the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup, which began Sept. 4 in Berlin. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-elite-women-basketball-players-healthy.html Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:20:05 EDT news708235261 Researchers at The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University have developed a laboratory method that transforms sheep bone into a realistic model of osteoporosis, providing a potential alternative for early-stage testing of orthopedic implants and treatments. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-bone-animal-osteoporosis.html Tue, 08 Sep 2026 10:00:01 EDT news708078961 Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Hospital for Special Surgery have discovered the unspecialized stem cells that give rise to the body's tendons and ligaments, the tissues connecting muscles and bones. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-newly-stem-cell-reveals-potential.html Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:00:03 EDT news707744588 In a study published in Scientific Reports, an international, multidisciplinary research team that included Binghamton University researchers identified a set of blood proteins that may explain why the corticosteroid prednisone, although beneficial in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), can interfere with childhood growth and bone health. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-blood-biomarkers-reveal-common-muscular.html Fri, 04 Sep 2026 13:00:03 EDT news707745541 A phase 3 trial is showing "a potentially giant step forward" in treating children with achondroplasia, UCLA Health's Dr. Isidro B. Salusky wrote in an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-treatment-approach-children-short-limbed.html Fri, 04 Sep 2026 07:20:03 EDT news707718662 Bone and joint infections cause significant health problems for patients and lead to millions of dollars in added health costs per year, but clinicians lack reliable tools to predict which patients will develop severe or persistent disease. And when standard-of-care antibiotics fall short, there are no immunotherapies available to help patients mount a stronger defense against infections. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-cell-protein-treatment-joint-complication.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 11:20:03 EDT news707652362 Peptides are short chunks of protein with specialized functions in the body. Insulin and GLP-1, both of which have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, are two of the most well-known. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-qa-peptide-supplements-outpaces-medicine.html Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:20:06 EDT news707639102 Level of education is the socioeconomic factor most strongly associated with survival rates after acute hip surgery. This is shown in a Linköping University study of 58,000 people. The results can be used to better identify patients who may need more support after surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-strongly-linked-survival-hip-fracture.html Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:00:12 EDT news707562541 Major new research from the University of Sydney has found that physiotherapist-led care significantly reduced emergency department waiting and treatment times for people with back pain, fractures, dislocations and other musculoskeletal conditions. The randomized controlled trial recruited 1,491 patients who presented to five emergency departments in NSW between November 2023 and March 2025. The findings are published in The Lancet. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-physiotherapist-emergency-departments-musculoskeletal-patients.html Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:40:01 EDT news707126311 Total joint replacement is a proven treatment to relieve chronic knee pain, but concerns have been raised that particles from the device may migrate to the brain and cause memory problems. New research from Rush University shows this may not be a concern. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-total-joint-particles-brain.html Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:40:06 EDT news707129161 A machine-learning tool built from Swedish national health registry data can predict hip fracture risk with high accuracy without an in-person assessment and identifies far more at-risk individuals than current clinical screening practices, according to a study published Aug. 27 in the journal PLOS Medicine by Kristian Axelsson and Mattias Lorentzon of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-registry-based-hip-fracture-current.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 14:00:12 EDT news706887254 Every year, hundreds of thousands of older Americans recover from hip and knee replacement surgery at home. For many, that recovery depends on timely access to physical or occupational therapy after leaving the hospital. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-08-gaps-home-rehab-joint.html Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:40:03 EDT news707028841