RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Joint hypermobility: emerging disease or illness behaviour?
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP s50
OP s52
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.13-6-s50
VO 13
IS Suppl 6
A1 Rodney Grahame
YR 2013
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/13/Suppl_6/s50.abstract
AB Joint hypermobility syndrome is a common clinical entity which is much misunderstood, overlooked, misdiagnosed and mistreated. It was first described in the 1960s as a purely musculoskeletal condition due to joint laxity and hypermobility occurring in otherwise healthy individuals. Some four decades later it is now perceived to be a multi-systemic heritable disorder of connective tissue with manifestations occurring far beyond the confines of the locomotor system and with ramifications potentially affecting most, if not all, of the bodily systems in one way or another. Most authorities in the field find it clinically indistinguishable from the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome – hypermobility type (formerly, EDS type III). In >50% of patients the diagnosis is delayed for ≥10 years. Failure to diagnose and treat the condition correctly results in needless pain and suffering and in many patients to a progressive decline in their quality of life and in some to a loss of independence.