Musculoskeletal Flashcards
Conditions and presentation
What rules are used to assess ankle injuries
Ottawa ankle rules
Ottawa rules and X-rays rule
- Inability to weight bear for 4 steps
- Tenderness over the distal tibia
- Bone tenderness over the distal fibula
Ankle fracture scales
- Potts
- Weber
- AO systems
Weber classifications
- Type A below the syndesmosis
- Type B start at the level of the plafond and extends to involve syndemosis
*Type C is above sysndesmosis and causes damage to it
Management of ankle injury
*promptly remove and reduce pressure to overlying skin
*young patients usually require surgery
* Elderly patients fare better with conservative management as their bones may not support metal.
Discitis
*Infection in the intervertebral disc space.
*Leads to serious complications such as sepsis or epidural abscess
Features of Discitis
- Back pain
General features
* pyrexia
* rigors
* sepsis
Neurological features
* e.g. changing lower limb neurology
* if an epidural abscess develops
Causes of discitis
Bacterial
Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of discitis
Viral
TB
Aseptic
Diagnosis of discitis
Imaging: MRI has the highest sensitivity
CT-guided biopsy may be required to guide antimicrobial treatment
Managment of discitis
- six to eight weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy (IV co amox)
- the patient should be assessed for endocarditis e.g. with transthoracic echo or transesophageal echo.
Red flags for lower back pain
*age < 20 years or > 50 years
* history of previous malignancy
* night pain
* history of trauma
* systemically unwell e.g. weight loss, fever
Facet Joint pain
- pain between bones of spine
- May be acute or chronic
- Pain worse in the morning and on standing
- On examination there may be pain over the facets. The pain is typically worse on extension of the back
Spinal stenosis
- Usually gradual onset
- Unilateral or bilateral leg pain (with or without back pain), numbness, and weakness which is worse on walking. Resolves when sits down. Pain may be described as ‘aching’, ‘crawling’.
- Relieved by sitting down, leaning forwards and crouching down
- Clinical examination is often normal
- Requires MRI to confirm diagnosis
Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Typically a young man who presents with lower back pain and stiffness
- Stiffness is usually worse in morning and improves with activity
- Peripheral arthritis (25%, more common if female)
Peipheral artery disease: when to suspect
- Pain on walking, relieved by rest
- Absent or weak foot pulses and other signs of limb ischaemia
- Past history may include smoking and other vascular diseases
Lumbar spinal stenosis
central canal is narrowed by tumour, disk prolapse or other similar degenerative changes.
Symptoms of Lumbar spinal Stenosis
- back pain, neuropathic pain and symptoms mimicking claudication.
*Sitting is better than standing and patients may find it easier to walk uphill rather than downhill.
Pathology of spinal stenosis
- Intervertebral disk where biochemical changes such as cell death and loss of proteoglycan and water content lead to progressive disk bulging and collapse.
- Increased stress transfer to the posterior facet joints, which accelerates cartilaginous degeneration, hypertrophy, and osteophyte formation; this is associated with thickening and distortion of the ligamentum flavum.
- ventral disk bulging, osteophyte formation at the dorsal facet, and ligamentum flavum hyptertrophy combine to circumferentially narrow the spinal canal and the space available for the neural elements. The compression of the nerve roots of the cauda equina leads to the characteristic clinical signs and symptoms of lumbar spinal stenosis.
Investigation of spinal stenosis
MRI scanning is the best modality for demonstrating the canal narrowing.
Treatment of spinal stenosis
Laminectomy
Neoplastic spinal cord compression
- Oncological emergency
- affects up to 5% of cancer patients.
- Extradural compression accounts for the majority of cases, usually due to vertebral body metastases.
- It is more common in patients with** lung, breast and prostate cancer**
Features of Neoplastic spinal cord compression
1* back pain
* the earliest and most common symptom
* may be worse on lying down and coughing
* lower limb weakness
* sensory changes: sensory loss and numbness
* neurological signs depend on the level of the lesion.
Above L1 upper motor neurone signs
Below L1 lower motor neurone signs
Investigations of Spinal cord compression
urgent MRI: the 2019 NICE guidelines recommend a whole MRI spine within 24 hours of presentation
Managment of spinal cord compression
- high-dose oral dexamethasone
- urgent oncological assessment for consideration of radiotherapy or surgery
Managment of Osteomyelitis
- flucloxacillin for 6 weeks
- clindamycin if penicillin-allergic
Investigations for Osteomylitis
MRI is the imaging modality of choice, with a sensitivity of 90-100%
non-haematogenous osteomyelitis
- results from the contiguous spread of infection from adjacent soft tissues to the bone or from direct injury/trauma to bone
- is often polymicrobial
- most common form in adults
- risk factors include: diabetic foot ulcers/pressure sores, diabetes mellitus, peripheral arterial disease
haematogenous osteomyelitis
- results from bacteraemia
- is usually monomicrobial
- most common form in children
- vertebral osteomyelitis is the most common form of haematogenous osteomyelitis in adults
- risk factors include: sickle cell anaemia, intravenous drug user, immunosuppression due to either medication or HIV, infective endocarditis
Ankylosing spondylitis
HLA-B27 associated spondyloarthropathy. It typically presents in males (sex ratio 3:1) aged 20-30 years old.
Prescribing methotrexate
- take once a week
- folate in meantime
Features of ankylosing spondylitis
*typically a young man who presents with lower back pain and stiffness of insidious onset
*stiffness is usually worse in the morning and improves with exercise
*the patient may experience pain at night which improves on getting up
Clinical examination of ankylosing spondylitis
*reduced lateral flexion
*reduced forward flexion - Schober’s test - a line is drawn 10 cm above and 5 cm below the back dimples (dimples of Venus). The distance between the two lines should increase by more than 5 cm when the patient bends as far forward as possible
*reduced chest expansion
The A’s of ankylosing spondylitis
Apical fibrosis
Anterior uveitis
Aortic regurgitation
Achilles tendonitis
AV node block
Amyloidosis
and cauda equina syndrome
peripheral arthritis (25%, more common if female)
treatment of ankylosing spondylitis
- exercise
- smoking cessation
- NSAIDs
- physiotherapist
- disease-modifying drugs which are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (such as sulphasalazine) are only really useful if there is peripheral joint involvement
- Anti-TNF therapy ( adalimumab, etanercept)
Indications for methotrexate
inflammatory arthritis, especially rheumatoid arthritis
psoriasis
some chemotherapy acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Adverse affects of methotrexate
mucositis
myelosuppression
pneumonitis
Pulmonary fibrosis
Liver fibrosis
Pregnancy and methotrexate
- women should avoid pregnancy for at least 6 months after treatment has stopped
- men using methotrexate need to use effective contraception for at least 6 months after treatment
Rheumatoid arthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the joints, causing inflammation, pain, stiffness, and potential joint damage.
Rheumatoid arthritis surgical sieve
*autoimmune condition
* immune system mistakenly attacking healthy tissues, particularly the synovium, the lining of the joints.
Symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
include joint pain, swelling, stiffness, fatigue, and warmth around affected joints. Symptoms often occur symmetrically, affecting both sides of the body.
What joints does RA affect?
RA typically affects small joints first, such as those in the hands and feet, but can progress to larger joints like knees, shoulders, and hips.
Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs)
methotrexate and sulfasalazine,
*TNF-alpha inhibitors (e.g., adalimumab, etanercept) *interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitors (e.g., tocilizumab),
*specifically target parts of the immune system involved in RA.
extrarticular features of RA
*cardiovascular disease
*lung problems (e.g., interstitial lung disease), *osteoporosis
* increased risk of infections.
respiratory complications of RA
- pulmonary fibrosis
- pleural effusion
- pulmonary nodules
- bronchiolitis obliterans
- methotrexate pneumonitis
- pleurisy
Occular manifestations of RA
- keratoconjunctivitis sicca (most common),
- episcleritis
- scleritis
- corneal ulceration
- keratitis
- steroid-induced cataracts
- chloroquine retinopathy
Cardiac complications of RA
Ischaemic heart disease
RA carries a similar risk to type 2 diabetes mellitus
Felty’s syndrome
less common
three components
RA + splenomegaly + low white cell count
amyloidoisis is also less common (not
RA diagnosis
1) have at least 1 joint with definite clinical synovitis
2) with the synovitis not better explained by another disease
Classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (add score of categories A-D;
a score of 6/10 is needed definite rheumatoid arthritis)
RA antibodies
- Rheumatoid factor (RF) is a circulating antibody (usually IgM) that reacts with the Fc portion of the patients own IgG
RF can be detected by either
* Rose-Waaler test: sheep red cell agglutination
* Latex agglutination test (less specific)
RF associated with positive RF
- Felty’s syndrome (around 100%)
- Sjogren’s syndrome (around 50%)
- infective endocarditis (around 50%)
- SLE (= 20-30%)
- systemic sclerosis (= 30%)
- general population (= 5%)
- rarely: TB, HBV, EBV, leprosy
Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody
- Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody may be detectable up to 10 years before the development of rheumatoid arthritis.
RA xrays
x-rays of the hands and feet of all patients with suspected rheumatoid arthritis.
Initial therapy managment of RA
- DMARD monotherapy +/- a short-course of bridging prednisolone
DMARD options include:
* methotrexate
* sulfasalazine
* leflunomide
* hydroxychloroquine
Moinitoring in patients who take Methotrexate
- FBC & LFTs
due to the risk of myelosuppression and liver cirrhosis
RA monitoring response to treatment
- DAS28
- CRP and disease
Managment of RA flares
flares of RA are often managed with corticosteroids - oral or intramuscular