The Rheumatology Department conducts the following activities:
- An Outpatient Clinic is available to treat and monitor all patients suffering from rheumatology disorders.
- At the Osteoporosis & Metabolic Bone Disease Clinic prevention, monitoring, diagnosis and treatment take place.
- The ability to perform full clinical and laboratory assessment, and treatment, for all Autoimmune diseases.
- Specialization and training of nursing staff in the administration of biological agents, which is the latest treatment for autoimmune disorders.
- Managing extra-articular rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and degenerating arthritis by intra-articular administration of hyaluronic acid and corticoids, locally.
- Participation and discussion of pathological occurrences requiring rheumatologic assessment.
- Inpatient monitoring with the active presence of the rheumatologist, when necessary.
- Medical staff updates on current developments in the field of Rheumatology.
What conditions are treated at the Rheumatology Department?
Arthritides: Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Gout, Enteropathic Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, Reiter’s Syndrome, Pyrophosphate Arthropathy, Chronic Juvenile Arthritis, and Still Disease.
Local Rheumatism/ Soft Tissue Problems: neck pain, radiculitis, back pain, sciatica, degenerative disc disease, rotator cuff tendinitis, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, olecranon bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar nerve entrapment, trigger finger, trochanteric bursitis, peroneal tendonitis, and algodystrophy.
Bone Metabolic Diseases: Osteoporosis, Regional Osteoporosis, Osteomalacia and Renal Osteodystrophy.
Autoimmune Diseases:
– Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: symptoms include joint pain, fatigue, rashes, weight loss, fever, swollen lymph nodes, mouth ulcers, and can also affect the kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels vessels and the brain.
– Sjögren’s Syndrome: Sjogren’s syndrome or autoimmune epitheliitis is a chronic autoimmune condition that mainly affects the exocrine glands. The main exocrine glands affected are the salivary and lacrimal glands.
– Polymyositis: Weakness, tenderness or pain is observed first in the abdominal muscles and then in other muscle groups
– Scleroderma: Scleroderma or systemic sclerosis is a multisystemic autoimmune disease that affects multiple systems of the human body, such as the skin, joints, muscles, tendons, but sometimes also internal organs of the body such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys.
– Polymyalgia Rheumatica: Polymyalgia rheumatica is an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle pain and stiffness, especially in the shoulders and hips. Symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica usually start quickly and are worse in the morning. The condition rarely affects people under the age of 50.
– Relapsing Polychondritis: This is a rare disease that causes inflammation of the cartilage throughout the body, especially in the ears, nose, eyes and throat. Its symptoms come and go and their severity and frequency of occurrence varies from person to person.
– Behcet’s Disease: is a rare disorder that causes inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body with many symptoms that may seem unrelated at first. These include mouth ulcers, eye inflammation, skin rashes, genital lesions and sores.
– Vasculitis: The condition concerns the inflammation of the blood vessels which causes thickening of their walls and reduction of blood flow, resulting in organ and tissue damage.
Autoinflammatory Diseases: Familial Mediterranean Fever, TRAPS, HIDS and CAPS.
Chronic Pain: Fibromyalgia, Somatic Symptoms Disorder with Predominant Pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Temporomandibular Syndrome.