When “joint disease” meets “heart disease”

  With the aging of society, bone and joint diseases are increasingly plaguing the elderly, affecting more than 50% of people over 65 years of age and 80% of people over 75 years of age. Artificial joint replacement surgery, one of the most successful surgeries of the twentieth century, has successfully cured the pain and brought good news to many elderly patients with arthritis. However, elderly people are also the most prone to geriatric cardiovascular disease, which is the most disabling and deadly disease in the elderly and accounts for the first place in the incidence of geriatric diseases. However, when an elderly person has heart disease and joint disease, the treatment needs to be carefully considered.  First, joint disease and heart disease interact with each other. The pain from joint disease can lead to poor sleep and decreased mobility, which can also lead to decreased cardiac output, exacerbating the decline in heart function. Similarly, because of heart disease, the blood supply to the body organs is inadequate and the patient’s mobility decreases, accelerating joint aging and making it difficult to recover from joint disease.  Secondly, there is mutual interference with therapeutic medication. Some drugs used to treat heart disease have an effect on the metabolism of joint cartilage, and similarly, some drugs used to treat joint pain interfere with the blood supply to the heart. What’s more, some drugs for heart disease interfere with the body’s blood clotting mechanism, which is powerful for treating heart disease but aggravates bleeding when the patient needs to undergo artificial joint replacement surgery and affects joint replacement surgery.  Third, during surgical treatment, there is a risk of aggravating or inducing heart disease, resulting in unintended consequences. Artificial joint replacement surgery is a technically demanding procedure that can have a greater impact on the circulatory system during the procedure and in the prevention of post-surgical complications.  Therefore, if the above-mentioned joint disease and heart disease coexist in the elderly, the following issues should be noted when visiting the doctor for treatment: 1. Inform the doctor accurately and timely about your heart disease and joint disease, etc., so that the doctor can have a comprehensive medical history, and the best way is to present your discharge summary, outpatient is the record book, test results and other information.  2, drug treatment should be a comprehensive evaluation, balanced choice, treatment of major diseases do not bring other serious side effects because of drugs, affecting their own joint disease or heart disease treatment.  3.Before performing joint surgery replacement surgery, perform the necessary cardiac examination to understand the heart condition and ask the cardiologist for consultation and treatment if necessary.  4. Adjust the dosage and usage of some medications appropriately to ensure that the joint replacement surgery goes smoothly while the heart disease is treated in a timely manner.  Of course, many of the above measures must be carried out under the guidance and comprehensive judgment of the doctor, so the safest and most effective way is to choose a general hospital with strong capabilities in treating both heart disease and joint disease, and choose a doctor experienced in these areas for treatment.