Overview Once arthritis is suspected, physicians should distinguish between noninflammatory and inflammatory forms of arthritis while recognizing potentially disabling and life-threatening problems.
| Remember Rule out septic arthritis in any monoarthritic presentation, prolonged diagnosis results in irreversible joint damage |
| Definition Polyarthralgia: multiple joint pain without synovities Polyarthritis: inflammation of 4 or more joints (synovitis) |
| Monoarthropathy | Oligoarthropathy | Polyarthropathy |
| Septic arthritis | Crystal arthritis | Rheumatoid arthritis |
| Crystal arthritis (Gout) | Psoriatic arthritis | Viral Arthritis |
| Osteoarthritis (can be mono-poly) | Reactive arthritis | Autoimmune connective tissue disease (ie. SLE) |
| Trauma (Haemarthrosis) | Ankylosing spondylititis | Vasculitides (ie. Polymyalgia Rheumatica) |
Approach
| Age | |
| Child | Trauma, Congenital, slipped capital femoral epihpysis, Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis |
| Young Adults | Reactive arthritis, gonococcal, SLE |
| Older patients | Acute gout and Pseudogout, Rheumatoid arthrits |
Arthritis can be divided into:
Non-inflammatory Arthritis
Inflammatory Arthritis
