Clinical management of finger joint capsulitis/synovitis in a rock climber

This case study presents a 23-year-old male recreational rock climber, who climbed an average of 3-4 times per week and presented with finger joint capsulitis/synovitis after increasing his climbing intensity and training from moderate to high over 6 months, which led up to injury. During the exam, the diagnosis was ruled in with clinical orthopedic testing. Additional movement analyses revealed improper gripping mechanics contributing to asymmetric finger loading. A comprehensive rehabilitation program was developed based on the concept of a progressive framework that included unloading of the affected tissues, increasing mobility, improving muscle performance, and correcting suboptimal climbing movements. After 6 weeks, the climber's pain 24 h after climbing, which was rated on a visual analog pain scale (VAS), decreased from 5.5/10 to 1.5/10 and 0/10 at the 12-month follow-up. His patient-specific functional scale improved from 0% at the initial evaluation to 43% after 6 weeks and to 98% after 12 months. His sports-specific disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand improved from 69% to 34% to 6% during the initial evaluation, 6-week follow-up, and 12-month discharge. He made a full recovery to his previous grade of V8 bouldering. This is the first case study of its kind to provide a rehabilitation framework for the management of finger joint capsulitis/synovitis in a rock climber.

Comparison of ultrasonographic joint and tendon findings in hands between early, treatment-naïve patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis

Although both systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may lead to joint deformity, SLE arthritis is typically non-erosive and often accompanied by Jaccoud's deformity. Therefore, we examined characteristics of joint and tendon lesions in patients with SLE and RA by ultrasonography. Fifteen treatment-naïve SLE patients and 40 treatment-naïve RA patients with joint symptoms were included in this study. The hand joints and related tendons were ultrasonographically examined using grey-scale (GS) and power Doppler (PD). Joint involvement was comparably observed in patients with SLE and RA (80% versus 95%, p = 0.119). However, tendon involvement was more frequent in SLE than in RA (93% versus 65%, p = 0.045), especially in the wrist joints (73% versus 40%, p = 0.037). When we investigated the intensity of US findings, the joint synovitis score (GS + PD) per affected joint was lower in SLE than RA (2.0 versus 2.6, p = 0.019), while tendon inflammation score was not significantly different (2.1 versus 2.2, p = 0.738). Finally, the examination of concordance between joint and tendon involvement in the same finger revealed that joint lesion appeared in only 49% of fingers having tendon involvement in the SLE group, which was significantly less than 74% in the RA group ( p = 0.010). Thus, as compared with RA, SLE arthropathy is characterized by the predominance of tenosynovitis/periextensor tendon inflammation, which is likely to develop independently from joint synovitis.