Rheumatic diseases in children as an important specialty. Bone marrow transplantation is the hope for the most severely ill patients
Fasth, A.; Andersson-Gäre, B.
Lakartidningen 97(24): 2968-2973
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0023-7205 PMID: 10900881 Document Number: 525573
Chronic inflammatory joint disorders can be viewed as a spectrum of disease presenting one set of characteristics during childhood and another in adulthood. Few of the disorders are specific for children of a specific age, even if some conditions might be very rare in certain age groups. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is a new name suggested for pediatric chronic inflammatory joint disorders. Drug therapy is based on the same principles as for adults: an aggressive approach with NSAID-drugs and low dose methotrexate in combination with local steroid injections. New drugs like TNF-blockade and COX-2 inhibitors are almost untested in children, with the exception of etanercept which has been studied in children with polyarticular disease and proven to be very effective. For rare cases with very severe joint disease hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is under evaluation.