Diseases that cause pain and limitation of movement, sometimes swelling and deformity in muscles, bones, joints and ligaments that connect these structures are generally called rheumatism. Rheumatic diseases can be broadly classified as inflammatory and non-inflammatory.
Non-inflammatory rheumatic diseases: The most common diseases in this group are degenerative joint diseases (osteoarthritis), commonly known as arthritis, and soft tissue rheumatism (myalgia, fibromyalgia, tendonitis), which are characterized by pain in the soft tissues of the neck, back, arms and legs.
Inflammatory rheumatic diseases: A group of systemic diseases that can result in non-microbial inflammation in the joints and sometimes in organs such as the eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc., usually caused by disorders in the immune system due to various causes (genetic predispositions, environmental factors, infections, etc.).
They can be broadly classified as follows:
- Rheumatoid arthritis and other connective tissue diseases (systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, Sjögren’s syndrome, mixed connective tissue disease, dermatomyositis-polymyositis, polymyalgia rheumatica, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome)
- Seronegative spondylarthropathies (ankylosing spondylitis, enteropathic arthropathies, psoriatic spondylarthopathies, Reiter syndrome and reactive arthropathies)
- Behcet’s disease
- Vascular inflammation (vasculitis)
- Periodic fever syndromes (familial Mediterranean fever and similar syndromes)
- Crystal arthropathies
- Arthritis is the most prominent feature of inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Arthritis means inflammation of movable joints. The joint that develops arthritis is swollen, hot, painful, its movements are limited; sometimes it may look red.
- Some systemic diseases (chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases, tumors) can sometimes give signs of inflammatory rheumatic disease. Again, in the early stages of the disease, these rheumatic symptoms may predominate over the symptoms associated with the underlying disease.
Treatment of rheumatic diseases
Non-steroidal (cortisone) anti-inflammatory drugs are frequently used in non-inflammatory rheumatic diseases. In the treatment of these diseases, it may be necessary to receive supportive treatments from physical therapy and rehabilitation, neurology – neurosurgery, orthopedics and psychiatry clinics.
Although some of the inflammatory rheumatic diseases are completely cured, most of them may progress with recovery and exacerbations. Patient and physician compliance is important. The aim of treatment is to relieve complaints, prevent possible organ involvement and ensure that the patient’s comfort of life is maintained at the highest level. It is possible to prevent joint deformities and disabilities that may develop with early and appropriate treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment of diseases with systemic involvement has a direct impact on survival. In the acute period, cortisone treatments are used to suppress inflammation, and in the long term, the disease is treated with some basic antirheumatic drugs and the duration of cortisone intake is tried to be kept as short as possible. Today, successful results are obtained with new biological therapies in patients in whom basic antirheumatic drugs are insufficient. Like all diseases, early diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases is important.