Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder ... can eventually develop advanced RA— sometimes also called “end-stage” ...

So there is a limited role for surgery. And what is recommended in terms of expert guidelines is for people who have end-stage arthritis of their hips, which is a fairly common site of involvement ...

Three of those patients, however, had delamination of the articular surface, which is consistent with the end-stage arthritis seen in total hip arthroplasty in patients with stage V disease.