If you read The Rheumatologist regularly, you may remember a column I wrote a few months ago about giving and receiving feedback (July 2017). I wrote it when I was finishing fellowship and looking back at six years of my graduate medical education. Now, as an attending physician who spends a considerable amount of time…
SAN DIEGO—Rheumatologists who treat lupus patients gleaned tips on diagnosis and management of renal disease, painful neuropathies and alopecia at a “Curbside Consults” session held Nov. 6 at the ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting in San Diego. Membranous Lupus Nephritis Patients with refractory membranous lupus nephritis (MLN), or Class V lupus nephritis, face “significant morbidity, most of…
When a young patient arrives at a clinic complaining of knee pain with clicking or popping, a meniscal tear is often the culprit. “In young [people], there’s a pretty classic presentation of meniscal tear, with clicking and other mechanical symptoms, because the tear rubs up against different tissues,” says Jeffrey Katz, MD, MSc, a rheumatologist…
(Reuters Health)—When one person in a household gets prescribed opioids, the other people who live with them are more likely to get their own prescriptions for these narcotic painkillers, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on about 12.6 million people living in a household where someone was prescribed opioids and 6.4 million individuals in…
Raynaud’s phenomenon in scleroderma or systemic sclerosis (SSc) is associated with significant discomfort and functional disability, especially in the presence of digital ulcers.1 Having lived with diffuse systemic sclerosis (dSSc) for nearly a decade, I can attest to this. It has been my experience that the hand pain and dysfunction in dSSc stems from Raynaud’s…
BOSTON (Reuters)—A Rhode Island doctor pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges he participated in a scheme to obtain kickbacks in exchange for writing prescriptions for an addictive fentanyl-based cancer pain drug produced by Insys Therapeutics Inc. The plea by Jerrold Rosenberg came amid ongoing investigations of Insys related to Subsys, an under-the-tongue spray that contains…
Two pain treatments, extended-release injectable suspension triamcinolone acetonide (Zilretta) and meloxicam, have seen movement at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In October, the agency approved Zilretta to treat osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain and accepted a new drug application for meloxicam to treat pain. FDA Approves Zilretta On Oct. 6, the FDA approved extended-release,…
Pediatric rheumatology patients present unique challenges. According to Kyla Driest, MD, MEd, using age and temperament appropriate methods, such as distraction or icing, may help children manage pain and ease anxiety…
(Reuters Health)—People who sleep poorly may be more likely to develop a chronic pain condition and have worse physical health, a study from the U.K. suggests. A general decline in both the quantity and quality of hours slept led to a two- to three-fold increase in pain problems over time, researchers found. “Sleep and pain…
A two-year study among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) showed that steroid injections for knee pain were no more effective than saline injections and actually reduced cartilage volume more than placebo. The study, conducted at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, looked at progression of cartilage loss and change in knee pain after treatment with placebo…