Rheumatology deals with the detection, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of the patients with non-surgical diseases of the muscculoskeletal system. These conditions are usually painful, acute or chronic, which are improper for a good movement. They are generally called rheumatism or rheumatic disease.
The main groups of them are
- Degenerative diseases caused by degeneration and wear of joints, or mechanical causes (gonarthrosis, coxarthrosis), spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation.
- Conditions caused by the presence of crystals in the joints or tendons like gout, pseudogout, joint chondrocalcinosis, diseases of tendons calcifications.
- Non-degenerative periarticular and articular inflammatory disease like tendonitis , bursitis, capsulitis, enthesitis, epycondilitis, fibromyalgia, Dupuytren’s syndrome, cervico-brachial neuralgia, scapulohumeral periarthritis, other canal syndromes of the upper and lower limb
- Infectious joint diseases caused by the presence of germs in the joints – Lyme disease (borreliosis), gonococcal arthritis, tuberculosis arthritis (osteo-articular TB) and other infectious arthritis.
- Metabolic disorders (osteoporosis, osteomalacia)
- Inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that are generally observed in systemic diseases – acute rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, Schlonlein Henoch syndrome, vasculitis.