Treatment
The treatment of JIA is best undertaken by an experienced team of health professionals, including pediatric rheumatologists, nurse specialists, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists. Many others in the wider health and school communities also have valuable roles to play, such as ophthalmologists, dentists, orthopaedic surgeons, school nurses and teachers, careers advisors and, of course local general practitioners, paediatricians and rheumatologists. It is essential that every effort is made to involve the affected child and their family in disease education and balanced treatment decisions.
The major emphasis of treatment for JIA is to help the child regain normal level of physical and social activities. This is accomplished with the use of physical therapy, pain management strategies and social support.
There have been very beneficial advances in drug treatment over the last 20 years. Most children are treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and intra-articular corticosteroid injections. Methotrexate is a powerful drug which helps suppress joint inflammation in the majority of JIA patients with polyarthritis (though less useful in systemic arthritis). Newer drugs have been developed recently, such as TNF alpha blockers, such as etanercept. There is no controlled evidence to support the use of alternative remedies such as specific dietary exclusions, homeopathic treatment or acupuncture. However, an increased consumption of omega-3 fatty acids proved to be beneficial in two small studies.
Celecoxib has been found effective in one study.
Other aspects of managing JIA include physical and occupational therapy. Therapists can recommend the best exercise and also make protective equipment. Moreover, the child may require the use of special supports, ambulatory devices or splints to help them ambulate and function normally.
Surgery is only used to treat the most severe cases of JIA. In all cases, surgery is used to remove scars and improve joint function.
Home remedies that may help JIA includes getting regular exercises to increase muscle strength and joint flexibility. Swimming is perhaps the best activity for all children with JIA. Stiffness and swelling can also be reduced with application of cold packs but a nice warm bath or shower can also improve joint mobility.
Read more about this topic: Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“I am glad you agree with me as to the treatment of the mining riots. We shall crush out the lawbreakers if the courts and juries do not fail.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“A regular council was held with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies, and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode,—the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man’s treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)