Arthritis
Framing
- Arthritis in older adults spans the same core disease categories as in younger patients (osteoarthritis, crystal arthropathy, septic arthritis, inflammatory arthritis) but with age-specific considerations - atypical/blunted presentation of septic arthritis, higher osteoarthritis prevalence and multimorbidity interaction, and age as itself a risk factor for polymyalgia rheumatica
- Acute monoarthritis in an older adult should always trigger urgent exclusion of septic arthritis given the higher morbidity/mortality of missed joint sepsis in this population, even when crystal arthropathy seems more likely on initial impression
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