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Medical Information
Explore detailed information about a range of joint problems and treatments, including medications, surgery, physiotherapy and rehabilitation. Reading this will help you understand more about your own condition. There is also a glossary with explanations of many medical terms used in orthopaedics. You can find out even more by following the links page to other related websites, journals or professional medical associations.
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Ankylosing Spondylitis
Author: DAVID P JOHNSON MB ChB FRCS FRCS. MD
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
Ankylosing spondylitis
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) principally affects the spine and could lead to severe stiffness of the back. This booklet gives you information about the complaint and how it may affect your health and activity. It deals with how to look after yourself, different forms of treatment, and offers advice about posture, exercise, occupation and inheritance.
What happens
Spondylitis comes from the Greek word for vertebra (spondylos) and means inflammation in the joints of the spine. As the inflammation reduces and healing takes place, bone grows out from both sides of the vertebrae and may join the two together; the stiffening this causes is called ankylosis.
The cause is not yet known. Occasionally more than one member of a family may get it as there is a hereditary factor. AS is not infectious nor contagious, nor can it be caused by athletic activity or injury.
However, symptoms sometimes follow unusual exertion or strain, which may be blamed at first. Typically, it attacks young men but can also occur in women.
Link – http://www.arc.org.uk/arthinfo/patpubs/6001/6001.asp
Editor: David P Johnson MD.
St Mary’s Hospital. Clifton Bristol. BS8 1JU.
Web site: www.orthopaedics.co.uk
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