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Archive for the ‘Arthritis’ Category

Surgery

It can be useful when a joint activity to recover lost as a result of a tendon rupture or a major cartilage destruction. The decision to intervene must be made by a multidisciplinary team comprising a rheumatologist, surgeon, radiologist and rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation

Complete medical treatment. In the case of rheumatoid arthritis, it is intended to protect joints and reduce the mechanical consequences of inflammation. You should try to get the most from a normal activity and learn the harmful gestures should be avoided. Lets also make orthotics, ie devices designed to immobilize during periods of rest the joints in good standing, or to stabilize them during activities. Read the rest of this entry »

It is slow-acting treatments, ie we should expect some delay (one to three months) to develop its effectiveness. Therefore not be removed too soon with the pretext that they are effective. It is necessary to decrease or stop taking the treatments in the background when rheumatoid arthritis is better, the referral is obtained thanks to the prescribed treatment, which however did not persist beyond a few weeks if it is interrupted.

Background The main treatments effective in rheumatoid arthritis are:

- Gold salts

- The synthetic antimalarial

- The salazopyrin

- The derivatives of the thiols

- Methotrexate Read the rest of this entry »

What treatments are available?

It is vital to address as soon as possible all rheumatoid arthritis, to reduce pain and prevent future development of deformities. The treatments are complex and it is important to understand the place and role of each.

There are several types of treatments whose goals are different and often prescribed together:

- The so-called symptomatic and aim to quickly relieve pain (analgesics) and combat inflammatory joint disease (inflammatory).

- The so-called background, that will stop the progression of the disease.

You need to understand well the difference between the two. Read the rest of this entry »

How does the doctor make the diagnosis?

It is important to diagnose the disease early. But this early diagnosis is not always easy because the signs may suggest other diseases. Usually necessary to discard certain biological tests.

- Through a blood sample for further analysis, the doctor will look for signs of inflammation such as elevated sedimentation rate and CRP rate. There are two tests that suggest the presence of rheumatoid arthritis: the latex test and Waaler reaction Ros. Both indicate rheumatoid factors, but are not always positive, even when the disease is present. Read the rest of this entry »

How rheumatoid arthritis develops?

Without treatment, the evolution is characterized by inflammatory outbreaks account for a progressively worsening. The prognosis is very variable depending on each patient, there are more or less aggressive forms. Healing is, however, rare.

The occurrence of joint deformation is, however, now well controlled by a precise therapeutic intervention and good patient information. Thanks to the suppressive treatments, prolonged remissions can be obtained relatively easily. Read the rest of this entry »

As its name suggests, rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by inflammation of multiple joints. It affects mainly the hands, wrists and knees. Other joints that may be equally affected, but never located in the spine or lumbar or sacroiliac joints.

Affected joints are swollen, painful, warm and their mobilization decreases. Both sides generally affect the same time: both hands, both wrists, both ankles …

The pain almost always are nocturnal, waking patients in the latter half of the night. In the morning upon awakening, patients suffer from a stiff joints affected by more or less important difficulty to mobilize them. It is important to assess the duration of morning stiffness (always more than half an hour in this disease). Read the rest of this entry »

What is Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Arthritis (rheumatoid) arthritis is a chronic inflammatory rheumatism which affects the various elements that make up the joints, which are synovial membrane, cartilage and bone (a normal joint scheme).

It is a disease where the synovial membrane cells begin to multiply abnormally, one speaks of “sinovita”. This leads to a thickening of the membrane called the synovial pannus. This phenomenon is accompanied by a significant joint inflammation, with resulting increased volume of joint fluid, in turn responsible for a swelling of the joint. If this condition is left untreated, can cause damage to the cartilage, bones, tendons and ligaments. These injuries will then lead to true deformations in the joints. Read the rest of this entry »