In this episode of The PODdoctors podcast, Dr. Damien Dauphinee, a board-certified foot and ankle surgeon, and Dr. Raafae Hussain, fellowship trained foot and ankle surgeon, talk about rheumatoid foot, an autoimmune disease that affects the joints. They talk about the development of DMARD medications and how they help control deformities in patients.

 QUOTES:

“If I was looking at just one joint I would think this is probably osteomyelitis or some type of septic arthritis. But if we are seeing it (no cartilage) uniform across all their joints we know this is most likely rheumatoid arthritis.” -Dr. Raafae Hussain [07:17]

“If your patient is on DMARDs, they are relatively well controlled and they’re not dealing with polyarthritis all the time, I would treat them like any other hallux rigidus patient. Give them the option of fusing it or doing an implant. Because this is a progressive problem, you want joint fusion over an implant” -Dr. Damien Dauphinee [22:45]

Top Takeaways:

• What is rheumatoid foot?
• Treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis
• Post-surgery recovery 

What You Will Learn:

• [00:50] Intro
• [02:00] What is rheumatoid foot 
• [10:14] Offloading weight from bone sites 
• [15:17] Treatment options
• [20:05] DMARDs
• [23:25] Implants
• [26:00] Recovery

Resources:

Visit our website: https://thepoddoctors.com/

Book Mentioned: Saving Limbs, Saving Lives: Advanced Treatments for Preventing Amputations in Diabetic Populations by Dr. Damien Dauphinee