The research demonstrates a mechanism whereby a joint injury could in principle aggravate, accelerate or cause a chronic joint disorder. Even where the injury does not directly damage the joint cartilages the proposal is that bleeding into the joint has the potential to have an irreversible damaging effect on that cartilage.
Evidence from:
NWD Jansen et al. Arthritis and Rheumatism (2007) Vol.56#1 p 199 – 207
“Exposure of Human Cartilage Tissue to Low Concentrations of Blood for a Short Period of Time Leads to Prolonged Cartilage Damage”
The above mechanism could perhaps provide a non-psychosocial explanation for chronic neck pain following for example, whiplash neck injury. Osteoarthritis could perhaps be accelerated by such an injury. However, it is surprising that initial injury severity is not predictive of outcome after one year; if the above mechanism is valid this is what would be expected.
Further detail: