Tamil Nadu

Gitanjali Medical Center

Arthritis literally means “Inflammation of Joint”, there are various types of arthritis, most common are Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Osteoarthritis is a joint inflammatory condition most commonly affecting the elderly people preferably the weight-bearing knee joint. The treatment depends on stage of arthritis: Mild, Moderate and Severe. The treatment modalities are Lifestyle modifi cation, Physiotherapy, Analgesics, Disease modifying drugs, intra-articular injections, Arthroscopic Lavage and in severe stage of arthritis Joint Replacement will be the best alternative. Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder, affects almost all the joints most commonly affecting young women and it is a very painful crippling disease. It needs to be diagnosed early and treatment should aim at controlling the disease before the joint destruction begins which commonly occurs 2years from the start of the disease.

The disease is very aggressive and crippling sets in very fast when it affects young women and RA Factor is positive. Available treatments are Analgesics and Anti-inflammatory, Disease Modifying Drugs, Physiotherapy and in final stage with total destruction Joint Replacement is the best solution. Apart from medical treatment these patients most importantly require moral support and counseling with regard to the disease process and the importance of medication since there is general opinion that the drugs have side-effects hence most of them switch over to alternate therapy or take low dose which will not control the disease leading to severe crippling, of course all medications has good effect and side-effects but this side-effect is reversible if you stop medication and consult your doctor but the disease process is irreversible and cause permanent damage.

Dr Anand Rengasamy, Gitanjali Medical Center, Trichy.

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