Rheumatoid Arthritis and your joints – Part II
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Loading ...We have looked at how rheumatoid arthritis affects arms, wrists, shoulders and elbows in our previous post. In this post, we will further explore how rheumatoid arthritis affects your lower parts of the body.
If you ask any person suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, their first complaint would be pain in the feet. But luckily for some people, feet would not even be a worrisome concern. If you haven’t been diagnosed yet, here’s a clue. One of the earliest manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis is painful swelling of the MTP joints. A common visible symptom at this stage would be your foot becoming broader and hammer toe deformity developing. It will also cause severe pain and sometimes, the sufferers would not be able to walk properly. If this condition persists for over a week, you must get the clue that it is a warning sign. Thus, giving it immediate medical attention is a good choice.
Knees are another commonly affected area because rheumatoid arthritis will make one prone to massive synovitis and knee effusion. If the effusion persists it could increase the risk of popliteal cyst formation and rupture. Knees are a vital place that should be protected as it is vulnerable to many varieties of deformities. As rheumatoid arthritis progresses through your body and especially if it progresses without proper medical attention, erosion of cartilage and bone will cause loss of joint space damaging medial, lateral and retropatellar compartments of the knees. At such point secondary osteoarthritis may also follow and the only way to get over pain and restore mobility would be possible through knee replacement surgery.
Somewhat luckily, hips are not commonly affected throughout rheumatoid arthritis. The prevalence is very rare during the onset of rheumatoid arthritis and if at all it gets affected it will have only very little impact throughout later stages. However if you encounter one of those rare incidents, pain and stiffness of the hip will be accompanied by radiological loss of joint space and juxta-articular osteoporosis. Along with this at a later stage, secondary osteoarthritis can develop where hip replacement will usually be necessary.
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