Introduction. Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is a progressive incurable disease, which in the case of a severe course at a late stage leads to total joint replacement. Recently, experts have focused their attention to the prevention and treatment of early osteoarthritis, so it is important to understand the prevalence, frequency, and modified risk factors for knee OA. The aim is to investigate the patterns of morbidity and prevalence of osteoarthritis of the knee joint on the basis of scientific analysis of relevant modern literature. Materials and methods. Research material – scientific articles in the MEDLINE database for the period 2016–2020, reflecting the epidemiological indicators of osteoarthritis of the knee joint, and additional search for articles from bibliographic lists of selected literature sources. Research methods – a systematic review of relevant sources of literature. Results. Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is one of the most common diseases of the musculoskeletal system. The frequency of osteoarthritis steadily increases with age, overweight. The progressive nature of the disease, the presence of persistent pain lead to limited functionality and reduced efficiency; such patients in some cases require surgical treatment aimed at replacing the compromised joint, which requires significant economic costs, medical rehabilitation and social readaptation of patients and is a heavy burden for both the patient and society as a whole. The lack of correlation between clinical symptoms and radiological signs of osteoarthritis of the knee joint leads to low availability of orthopedic care: more than 30 % of patients with a first diagnosis have a pronounced stage of the disease, and in some cases the pathology is diagnosed only in connection with complications; the diagnosis of osteoarthritis due to the high percentage of painless development of the disease (40 %) is often established in the terminal stages. All this indicates the need for further research on various factors influencing the frequency, prevalence, economic and social burden of osteoarthritis of the knee. Conclusions. Osteoarthritis of the knee joint is characterized by high incidence, which increases with age, progressive course, limited functional capabilities. Treatment of such patients requires significant economic costs of society. A significant increase in the prevalence of osteoarthritis of the knee is associated with increased life expectancy, obesity and some other factors that require further research.

The goal is to study the structural changes of the elements of the knee joint and their functional consequences in patients with monogonarthrosis of the 1st-2nd grade in the stage of exacerbation according to the data of a complex clinical and arthroscopic study. Materials and Methods. Materials - protocols of clinical, radiological and arthroscopic examination of 125 patients (54 (43.2%) men; 71 (57.8%) women), aged 18 - 79 years, with a previous diagnosis: Monoarthrosis of the knee joint in the stage of exacerbation. Research methods: questionnaire, orthopedic examination, X-ray diagnostics, arthroscopy, laboratory diagnostics of blood (determination of C-reactive protein (CRP) as a serological marker of inflammation), synovial fluid (analyses of physical properties, biochemical, cytological, bacteriological), statistical. Results and Discussion. According to the results of the comprehensive examination, the presence of primary monoarthrosis was confirmed in 118 (94.4%) patients (group A). Based on the definition of CRP, subgroups were distinguished: A1 (n=71; 56.8%) with a normal level and A2 (n=47; 37.6%) with elevated CRP. In 7 (5.6%) patients diagnosed seropositive unspecified rheumatoid monoarthritis with hypertrophic synovitis (group B). A significant predominance of women compared to men insubgroup A2 was revealed (p<0.05). It was investigated that the features of complaints, nature of pain sensations and indicators of orthopedic status in patients from subgroups A1 and A2 did not reliably differ in groups of patients with different levels of CRP. A significant predominance of normal contours of the affected knee joint was found in subgroups A1 (p<0.001) and A2 (p<0.01). Structural changes in knee joint elements according to X-ray and arthroscopic examination have no significant differences in subgroups of patients A1 and A2. Conclusions. The structural and functional state of the knee joints in patients with monogonarthrosis of the 1st-2nd grade according to the Kellgren-Lawrence classification is characterized by degenerative changes in almost all elements of the knee joint with moderate pain syndrome and functional disorders.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an unpredictable and progressive inflammatory disease of the joints of an immune nature, which in general for various reasons reduces the life expectancy of patients by 5 to 10 years. Pharmacotherapy of RA is based on long-term use of a large number of drugs of different pharmacotherapeutic groups, the cost of which varies significantly. The above makes the study of economic parameters of RA treatment an urgent problem. The aim of the study was to analyse the cost characteristics of pharmacotherapy of inpatients with RA in a hospital in order to optimize the cost of medication for these patients. The data of medical cards and medical records of 89 and 108 inpatients with RA, which were treated in the rheumatology department of the 4th Lviv City Clinical Hospital in 2009 and 2019, respectively, were selected as objects of the study. The methods of information retrieval, mathematical statistics, frequency, comparative, content analysis, data generalization, cost analysis were used. Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), glucocorticosteroids (GCs), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were grouped into six schemes for the RA pharmacotherapy in 2009 and 2019. An increase in the number of appointments of those schemes in which DMARDs were used has been established. The maximum share in both analysed periods was occupied by the triple pharmacotherapy scheme, which included all the above-mentioned drugs. This scheme was also the most expensive and its value at average retail prices (ARP) increased the most (9.4 times) from 2009 till 2019. During the analysed period, the average salary in Lviv region increased in 5.4 times, while the cost change indices (Ic) of different pharmacotherapy schemes, calculated on the basis of ARP, ranged from 6.9 for the two-component scheme with DMARDs and NSAIDs to 9.4 for the three-component scheme with DMARDs, GCs and NSAIDs. The analysis of affordability indices (Ia) showed that the most accessible was a two-component scheme, which included DMARDs and NSAIDs (Ia = 0.78). The study of the influence of the cost of the treatment schemes on the frequency of their prescribing using correlation analysis showed a very high dependence of these indices (R = 0.97). Pairwise correlations of pharmacotherapy appointment change indices (Iap) from Ic based on minimum (RPmin), maximum (RPmax) or average retail prices in Lviv pharmacies made it possible to establish a very high pair dependence of Iap from Ic calculated only on the basis of RPmax or ARP (R = 0.90). Thus, the analysis of patients' consumption of drugs for pharmacotherapy RA in the hospital allowed us to establish that in 2019 the treatment of RA became less available in comparison to 2009.