The Medical clinics of North America
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Med. Clin. North Am. · Mar 2021
ReviewManagement of Knee Osteoarthritis: What Internists Need to Know.
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common and morbid condition. No disease-modifying therapies exist; hence the goals of current treatment are to palliate pain and to retain function. OA is significantly influenced by the placebo effect. ⋯ Pharmacotherapy options include topical and oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, duloxetine, and periodic intra-articular glucocorticoids and hyaluronans. Opioids, intra-articular stem cells, and platelet-rich plasma are not recommended. Novel targets such as nerve growth factor are under investigation and may be approved soon for OA pain.
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Patients with rheumatic disease, including those with systemic lupus erythematous, rheumatoid arthritis, and spondyloarthritis, use total hip and knee arthroplasties at high rates. They represent a particularly vulnerable population in the perioperative setting because of their diseases and the immunosuppressant therapies used to treat them. Careful planning among internists, medical specialists, and the surgical team must therefore occur preoperatively to minimize risks in the postoperative period, particularly infection. Management of immunosuppressant medications, such as conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and targeted therapies including biologics, is one avenue by which this infectious risk can be mitigated.
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Gout is the most common inflammatory arthritis in the United States. Gouty arthritis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and is caused by hyperuricemia. ⋯ When serum urate is maintained at less than 6.0 mg/dL urate deposition is resolved and gout can be cured. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of physician monitoring and dose escalation the majority of patients do not achieve these urate levels.
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Med. Clin. North Am. · Mar 2021
ReviewUpdate on the Treatment of Giant Cell Arteritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
Giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) are considered 2 diseases on the same spectrum due to their many underlying similarities. In recent years, both diseases have witnessed both diagnostic and treatment advances, which shaped the way we manage them. In this article, the authors focus on different diagnostic modalities in GCA as well as the presence of different clinical phenotypes and the role of screening for aortic involvement. The authors also discuss traditional treatments and the role of evolving steroid-sparing agents in the management of both GCA and PMR.
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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disorder that manifests as a symmetric polyarthritis of small and large joints that may lead to joint and periarticular structural damage and the consequences of systemic inflammation. This overview of early RA examines the unmet needs and challenges in RA, how to best diagnose RA, and pitfalls in early diagnosis and treatment. The rules for referral to a rheumatologist are reviewed. Primary care physicians are at the front line of early diagnosis and need to start disease-modifying therapy as soon as a diagnosis of RA is established.