Rheumatology

What is a rheumatologist?
A rheumatologist is a doctor who has been trained in a subspecialty of internal medicine called rheumatology and deals with the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that affect the muscles, bones, joints, ligaments and tendons. Rheumatology investigates and treats all joint conditions, local musculoskeletal problems (tendons, ligaments, bursae, muscle injuries), and systemic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases across the age range.

What are systemic autoimmune diseases?
It is a group of diseases where a person’s immune system attacks their own body. This process ends up causing inflammation in areas of the body unnecessarily, causing pain, swelling in the joints and damage to internal organs. These diseases can affect any part of the body, such as the eyes, skin, nerves, kidneys, lungs and heart. These include Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Scleroderma, Polymyositis, Sjögren’s Syndrome, and Vasculitis.

How is the role of the orthopedist different from the part of the rheumatologist?
The role of the orthopedist is to perform surgical operations on the bones and joints; the purpose of the rheumatologist is to diagnose the type of musculoskeletal problem of a person and treat it using non-surgical methods.

What conditions does the rheumatologist face?

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, Sjögren’s Syndrome, Polymyositis, Scleroderma, Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Relapsing Polychondritis, Behcet’s Disease and Vasculitides.

Autoinflammatory Diseases: Familial Mediterranean Fever, TRAPS, HIDS and CAPS.

Chronic Pain: Fibromyalgia, Somatic Symptoms Disorder with Predominant Pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Temporomandibular Syndrome.

The activities of the rheumatology department consist of:

• Regular outpatient clinic daily where all patients with rheumatic diseases are treated and monitored.
• Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases Clinic, where prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and metabolic diseases are performed.
• Proficiency in conducting a complete clinical and laboratory investigation of all Autoimmune diseases and their treatment.
• Specialization and training of the nursing staff in administering biological agents for the current treatment of autoimmune diseases.
• Treatment of degenerative and inflammatory joint diseases is done by intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid and corticosteroids. Likewise, the therapy of extraarticular rheumatism (tendons, bursae, sheaths, ligaments) is accomplished with local injections of corticosteroids.
• Participation and discussion on the pathological cases that need rheumatological assessment.
• Daily support of the hospital emergency and the appropriate function of its wards and units with the active presence of the rheumatologist, when necessary.
• Briefing the medical staff of the hospital about the developments in rheumatology.

What is the goal of our rheumatology clinic?

It is the individualized and effective treatment of rheumatic problems tuned to the desire and needs of patients. Efficacious therapy is possible through the integrated approach to rheumatic disease and the assistance of the specialized associates of the Mediterraneo group.

What is the specialization of our rheumatology clinic?

• The precise technique of cortisone injections in all local rheumatism / soft tissue problems as mentioned above.
• The operation of the Fibromyalgia Clinic where the head rheumatologist Vassilios Papadakos was the Director of the Fibromyalgia Clinic for a decade at the “Evangelismos” Hospital, which was the only specialized clinic in the Public Sector. This clinic operated with an innovative and effective method while offering health services at a quaternary level. This reality is supported by his thorough training in Behavioral – Cognitive – Psychodynamic psychotherapy for twelve years, his involvement with psychotropic drugs and his work with three related books entitled:

• PAIN DISORDER-FIBROMYALGIA, Beta Medical Publications, 2011
• INTEGRATIVE MANUAL OF THERAPY FOR FIBROMYALGIA-The panoramic View, Amazon, 2017.
• TREATMENT OF FIBROMYALGIA-Complete guide to psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, Litsas medical publications, 2020.