Your joints are painful, swollen, or difficult to move. What to do? Which doctor should I contact with this problem? What is the difference between arthritis and arthrosis? In our body, everything works, works, and, therefore, wears out. Healthy cells repair themselves, but if this does not happen, it is necessary to find the cause and treat it.
Attention! Do not self-medicate, you can remove the symptoms, but the cause remains!
In small towns or villages, first of all, they go to the general practitioner, if the child has problems - to the pediatrician, and he already determines which narrow specialist will refer you.
If you have been diagnosed with arthritis, do not confuse it with arthrosis. What is the difference between arthritis and arthrosis? Now we will understand how this disease is different.
What is the difference between arthritis and arthrosis?
The first difference in etiology:
- Arthritis can occur as a result of injury or infection, damage in the metabolic system, and is characterized by an inflammatory process.
- Osteoarthritis - is chronic, thus the joints wear and change shape.
Symptoms of the disease are also different - this is the second sign:
- Arthritis - can occur in a latent form (chronic) or felt immediately (acute form). It is indicated by pain, fever, swelling, skin discoloration.
- Arthritis may not necessarily be accompanied by painful symptoms. Sometimes the pain occurs after a long rest, but disappears after development, there are cramps or clicks when moving.
Arthrosis affects people over 50 years old, athletes or as a result of severe bone fractures - after 40 years.
The third is the nature of damage to the body:
- Arthritis affects the whole body. The inflammatory process affects the function of internal organs: heart, liver, kidneys.
- Arthrosis - affects only the joints.
Fourth - how exactly are the joints damaged:
- Any joint can be painful with arthritis.
- Arthrosis likes to affect the connective tissue, which is most affected by the load. These are the knees, ankles, hips, and even the big toe joints.
Also, scientific studies have shown that patients with arthritis on Earth make up 2% of the population, and arthrosis - 10%.
What is the diagnosis based on?
General blood test - blood from the finger. If arthrosis, as a rule, does not change the composition of the blood, then with arthritis, the content of leukocytes and erythrocytes increases.
Rheumatic tests and biochemical analysis are carried out - they are taken from a vein on an empty stomach.
Arthrosis does not change the structure of the blood, with arthritis, inflammatory markers increase.
Rheumatoid arthritis is indicated by the appearance of rheumatoid factor in the blood, and with gout - an increase in uric acid.
X-ray - shows at what stage the disease is, if there are changes in the bone structure - arthrosis. MRI and CT scans can also be ordered.
Which doctor treats arthritis and arthrosis?
As mentioned earlier, we first visit general practitioners. He examines and refers to a rheumatologist, he examines, diagnoses and plans treatment.
What is the difference between arthritis and arthrosis? If the doctor has diagnosed arthrosis, he prescribes additional examinations to determine the stage of the disease.
Treatment occurs only with drugs, with the help of injections, ointments. First of all, doctors advise to reduce the load and take chondroprotectors. To improve blood circulation, a set of exercises is advised.
Treatment should be complex, so doctors of the following narrow specializations may be additionally involved: physiotherapists, massage therapists, specialists in physiotherapy exercises, surgeons.
In the case of connective tissue diseases, they can be sent to a sanatorium for further treatment and rehabilitation.
An arthrologist is a doctor who works with joint problems. However, these specialists are only found in large clinics, and it is difficult to get them.
If the disease continues, and has passed the difficult stage, then you should contact an orthopedic surgeon. He can perform, depending on the need for treatment, two types of operations: organ preservation and endoprosthetics.
For the best treatment at each stage, specialists from various fields are involved, but a therapist or rheumatologist supervises the entire treatment.
Which doctor will treat arthritis depends on the cause.
- With an injury that serves as an impetus, for development it is necessary to visit a traumatologist.
- Rheumatoid - specialist in immune diseases.
- Metabolic disorders (gout) - nutritionist, endocrinologist, rheumatologist.
- Problems with maxillofacial joints: dentist, ENT.
- With purulence - the intervention of a surgeon is required for an operation.
Doctors carry out treatment in several directions: to stop further destruction and restore the capacity of connective tissue.
Treatment should begin as soon as discomfort is felt. Therefore, you will quickly feel relief, and the disease will bring minimal harm to the body.
Treatment regimen
In each case, the doctor performs treatment depending on the cause of arthritis, but there is a standard scheme:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). First, a course of intramuscular, intravenous or intraarticular injections is made, for subsequent treatment, ointments can be used.
- Antispasmodic (for muscle spasms).
- Antidepressant.
- Anesthetic.
- Gastroprotectors, to protect the stomach.
- Prescribed vitamin complex.
- Chondroprotectors - they improve the quality of cartilage tissue.
- Therapeutic diet.
- Physiotherapy.
- Massage, acupuncture.
This treatment regimen is supplemented depending on the course of the disease. The recovery process is long and arduous, recovery also requires a lot of work on your part.