Organization - Rheumatology Service

The Rheumatology Department is divided up into three areas of activity that broadly cover the main rheumatic diseases, focusing on complex diseases in particular.

• Arthritis and immune-mediated pathology group. It treats patients with early arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other inflammatory joint diseases, including arthritis induced by oncological therapies.
• Metabolic bone disease. It treats patients with osteoporosis, Paget’s disease of bone and other bone diseases such as osteomalacia and osteogenesis imperfecta.
• Non-oncological chronic pain. It has a multidisciplinary programme for the evaluation and treatment of fibromyalgia, complex chronic regional pain and soft tissue pathologies that do not improve with conventional therapy.

At the same time, as a referral hospital for the Esquerra de l'Eixample, the Department treats patients with rheumatic disease who are referred from various primary care centres. It also has a hospitalization service for patients requiring hospitalization, and a day hospital, where various intravenous treatments related to the specialty are carried out.

The Department has an extensive range of diagnostic tests, including ultrasound of the musculoskeletal system, with invasive ultrasound-guided procedures, including synovial biopsy. In addition, it performs parotid ultrasound, temporal artery ultrasound, salivary biopsy and capillary laryngoscopy for a comprehensive approach to immune-mediated pathology.

The Rheumatology Department carries out minimally invasive outpatient surgical procedures in which they perform synovial biopsies guided by ultrasound/arthroscopy and arthroscopic lavages.

The Department is a leader in clinical assessment and in the application of diagnostic techniques, both laboratory (antibodies, bone markers) and imaging, with the development of pioneering techniques such as rheumatological small-bore needle arthroscopies.