
MEDICINE
OSTEOMYOARTICULAR

Arthritis
When speaking of arthritis, generically refers to a disease that affects the joints causing inflammation in principle. In reality there are many kinds of arthritis: microcrystalline (gouty and non-gouty), psoriatic, intermittent, traumatic, reactive and others, but today's note will exclusively refer to one of the best known and most frequent: Rheumatoid Polyarthritis (PAR). ) commonly known as deforming arthritis.
PAR is a disease characterized by chronic joint inflammation of a long time, with an obscure cause and where there is an immunological influence that is not yet fully clarified. The name PAR is conventionally used for people over 15 years of age, while in minors it is referred to as juvenile chronic arthritis.
PAR is much more common in women than in men -approximately 75%- and affects the joints above all, but it can also affect other organs such as the skin, heart, respiratory system, eyes, liver, kidneys and blood.
It usually has an insidious and progressive onset that causes painful stiffness in the morning, as well as swelling of the fingers, knuckles, and wrists. This progressive beginning through the hands is very reminiscent of the diagnosis.
Very frequently other joints are attacked at the same time or shortly after: knees, ankles, feet, elbows, shoulders, spine and hips.
Knee osteoarthritis
When we talk about osteoarthritis, we refer to a degenerative process of wear and tear on the joints, which basically begins in the articular cartilage that covers them and, if the necessary measures are not taken, it is very likely that the disease will also affect the underlying bone. and the joint space.

Cervicalgia – Neck Pain
There are many neck structures that can cause pain in it: muscles, ligaments, vertebrae, intervertebral discs, nerves, etc.
The neck can hurt because of multiple factors that involve these structures:
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muscle problems
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stress
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deviation of vertebrae
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vertebral misalignments
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disc disease (disc alterations of varying degrees whose maximum expression is the herniated disc that means the disc comes out of its place)
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trigger points (focuses of hyperexcitability that cause pain in the neck, but also at a distance from it, such as in the head, chest, arms)
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osteoporosis (although in reality the sectors of the spine most affected by this disease are the thoracic and lumbar spine, where crushing and vertebral fractures occur, which are the ones that mostly cause pain).
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Other less frequent causes: malformations, infections and tumors.
When the symptoms are confined to the neck, we call it cervical syndrome. When the symptoms manifest not only in the neck, but also spread to the head, with pain and/or dizziness, we call it cervical-cranial syndrome and, when the symptoms that It originates in the neck and spreads to one or both of the upper limbs (shoulder, arm, wrist, hand). We call it cervicobrachial syndrome, and it is common in these cases for the patient to also manifest paresthetic sensations: tickling, tingling, numbness, pinpricks.
Sciatica
This disease is characterized by pain in the lower back that usually spreads to one limb and more rarely to both.
That is, the pain can reach the buttock, thigh, knee, calf, ankle and foot.
Many times the person also feels what in medicine is known as paresthetic sensations: "tingling", "tingling", "burning" or "pins and needles" in the aforementioned places.
Sciatica can become very painful and is the result of irritation or inflation of the sciatic nerve, the largest in the entire body. Surely the majority of Uruguayans have heard the word sciatica, because they have suffered it in their own flesh, by reference or because they have seen a relative suffer. But it is true that most are completely unaware of what it is really about.
This term derives from the sciatic nerve, a thick nerve cord (formed by several roots) that originates in the lower part of the spinal cord, in the area of the lumbar spine (lower back), crosses the pelvis, enters the the muscular mass that constitutes the buttock and runs through the thickness of the corresponding muscles, to the back of the thigh and leg, ending at the foot.
During this long journey, the nerve emits numerous branches that will innervate the different muscles of the regions it crosses. When this nerve is irritated, it becomes inflamed and painful, and thus sciatica sets in, a disease characterized by the dominant symptom of pain.
