Principles of gout treatment

  Gout has now developed into the second most common metabolic disease after diabetes. The disease not only affects joints, causing joint pain, swelling, deformity and even fractures, but can also lead to uremia, induce and aggravate diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Early prevention and treatment of the disease is imperative. In recent years, as the basic and clinical research on gout has been intensified, the treatment concept and treatment strategy of gout, especially the use of drugs, have changed significantly, and these changes have not only improved the efficacy, but also significantly reduced the adverse effects of drugs.  The principle of gout treatment is “staging, grading, combination and integration”. That is, according to the different periods of gout onset, different degrees of severity, a variety of drug combinations, while taking into account the comprehensive treatment of gout comorbidities.  1.Stage treatment principle of gout disease: ① hyperuricemia stage: asymptomatic hyperuricemia stage, according to the guidelines, decide whether to lower uric acid treatment; ② acute gouty arthritis stage: analgesia is the main treatment principle of this stage; ③ intermittent stage: the interval between two gout occurrences. There is no joint pain, swelling and other gout symptoms in this period. The principle of treatment in this period is to use small doses of colchicine for 3-6 months while lowering uric acid; ④ Chronic period: lowering uric acid, analgesia and alkalinization of urine are carried out simultaneously; ⑤ Nephrotic period: avoid using drugs that damage the kidneys, while long-term uric acid-lowering treatment.  2.Grading of gout disease: The common symptoms and signs of gout such as joint pain, swelling, deformity, gout stone and renal insufficiency are quantified as much as possible, and the type and dose of drugs are decided according to the quantified score. For example, the VAS (visual analogue scale) method is used for grading joint pain. This method expresses the degree of pain in 11 numbers from 0 to 10. Among them, 0 means no pain, 10 means the most pain, and the patient picks a number from 0 to 10 to represent the pain level according to his or her pain level. This method is simple, accurate and operable, and has been widely accepted by scholars at home and abroad.  3.Combination therapy of gout disease: Since the pathological changes and clinical manifestations of different stages of gout are different, and the characteristics of each patient are different, different drugs should be selected for the combination of different stages of the disease.  4.Comprehensive treatment of gout disease: While treating gouty arthritis, we should take into account the treatment of gouty syndromes, reflecting the principles of “multi-disease treatment”, “multi-disease treatment” and “optimal combination”, etc. The principle of integrated treatment.