Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis Treatment in Kondapur, Hyderabad

Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory condition that can affect your joints. In some cases, it can cause damage to other body parts as well including the heart, blood vessels, lungs, eyes, and skin. This is an autoimmune condition that occurs when the immune system attacks its own body’s tissues by mistake. Unlike osteoarthritis’ wear-and-tear damage, rheumatoid arthritis can affect your joint’s lining. This can result in painful swelling that eventually leads to joint deformity and bone erosion. Even though there are several treatment options that can lead to dramatic improvements, severe rheumatoid arthritis can cause physical disabilities.

What are the Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Here are a few signs of rheumatoid arthritis;

• Warm, swollen, and tender joints
• Fever, fatigue, and appetite loss
• Joint stiffness that worsens after inactivity or in the morning

In its early stage, rheumatoid arthritis affects the smaller joints, especially the joints attached to your fingers and toes. As the disease continues to progress, the symptoms start spreading to the knees, wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, and knees. In most cases, symptoms start to show in the same joints on either side of the body. There are some other areas that might get affected by this as well like skin, eyes, heart, lungs nerve tissue, kidneys, bone marrow, salivary glands, and blood vessels.

When Should You See a Doctor?

If you have persistent swelling and discomfort in your joints, you should consult with a doctor immediately.

Request an appointment at Apollo Spectra Hospitals, Kondapur

Call 1860-500-2244 to book an appointment

What are the Causes?

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition. In normal cases, the immune system protects the body from disease and infection. But, if you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system will attack the healthy tissues and cause medical problems to your lungs, heart, eyes, skin, and nerves.

The exact cause of this condition is not known. However, there is a genetic component to it. Even though genes don’t cause rheumatoid arthritis, they do make you vulnerable to certain environmental factors that might trigger the disease.

What are the Risk Factors?

Here are certain factors that can increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis;

• Being female
• Being middle age
• Having a family member with the condition (heredity)
• Smoking
• Being overweight

What are the Complications of Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Having rheumatoid arthritis increase the risk of developing certain conditions like;

• Osteoporosis
• Rheumatoid nodules
• Dry mouth and eyes
• Infections
• Abnormal body composition
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Heart problems
• Lung disease
• Lymphoma

What is the Treatment?

Rheumatoid arthritis can’t be cured. However, studies have shown that it is possible to control the symptoms through medications and other forms of treatments.

1. Medications

   Here are certain medications that your doctor at Apollo Kondapur might recommend based on how severe your symptoms are and how long you have had this condition;

   • NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)
   • Steroids
   • Conventional DMARDs
   • Biologic agents
   • Targeted synthetic DMARDs
2. Therapy
   You might have to visit a physiotherapist or an occupational therapist who will help you perform exercises that will keep your joints flexible. They will also suggest new ways of doing daily tasks easily like picking an object using forearms. They will teach you how to use assistive devices that can help avoid stress to your painful joints.
3. Surgery
   If you can’t get rid of pain through medications or physical therapy, your last option will be to undergo surgery for repairing damaged joints. It can help restore the ability to use the joint, improve function, and reduce pain. Here are a few procedures that might be involved in rheumatoid arthritis surgery:
   • Synovectomy - Surgery for removing the inflamed synovium (lining of the joint) to improve the flexibility of your joint and reduce pain.
   • Tendon repair - Joint damage and inflammation can cause the tendons of the joint to get loose or rupture. This procedure is performed to repair these tendons.
   • Joint fusion - This procedure involves fusing a joint surgically for stabilizing or realigning a joint for pain relief.
   • Total joint replacement - In this, the damaged parts of the joint are removed and a prosthesis made of plastic and metal is inserted.