[Balneology, an ancient preventive and therapeutic option in arthrosis].

Arthrosis is defined as a group of distinct diseases with different etiology, having the same biological, morphological, and clinical modifications. The pathological process affects not only the cartilage but also includes the whole joint, the subchondral bone, the capsula, the synovial membrane and the musculature around the joint. Finally, the degenerated cartilage suffers a fibrization, a fissure and an ulceration, disappearing from the surface of the joint. The arthrotic degenerative process is complex and includes numerous factors which initiate the destructive process, progressively altering the joint structure. In fact, the cartilage suffers a chondrolysis process and consequently it disappears from the joint surface. In its turn, the bone reacts by producing a subtendonal osteocondensation type and synovial osteophytosis, responding by an inflammatory reaction, determined by the particles and elements produced by the chondrolysis. The therapy is individualized preferably immediately after the beginning, through non-pharmacological, pharmacological and surgical methods, so that it may influence its evolution and maintain functional the joint touched by the degenerative process. The purpose of the paper is to emphasize the importance of balneotherapy as a non-pharmacological method in the therapy of arthrosis, especially in maintaining the arthrotic joint at a normal level of functionality and of the tissues around the joint, which has a mobilizing and stabilizing function.