Musculoskeletal disorders and anaesthesia

This chapter covers the anaesthetic implications of the polyarthropathies, connective tissue diseases, and primary myopathies. There are generic considerations for management of patients with joint and muscle disease but many of these conditions have multisystem involvement, the nature of which varies between the individual members of each class. Anaesthetic management of the polyarthropathies requires knowledge of the adverse effects of disease-modifying drugs and new biological treatments. Advances in genetic diagnosis of inherited myopathies aid the identification of potential hazards of anaesthesia in these challenging patients.