ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the health issues related to bones and joints. It also explains the pathophysiology, preoperative assessment, intraoperative management and postoperative management for the same. These issues include ankylosing spondylitis, dwarfism, marfan syndrome, metabolic and degenerative bone disease, rheumatoid disease and scoliosis. Ankylosing spondylitis affects young people principally, presenting at around 26 years of age with a male:female ratio of 2:1. Individuals with short stature conventionally are divided into two categories: those with proportionate growth and those with disproportionate growth. Clinical diagnosis requires a family history of Marfan syndrome with involvement of an organ system, but increased organ involvement is needed for the diagnosis if there is no family history. Osteomalaci is a metabolic disease of the bone in which normal bone is replaced by unmineralized osteoid. When this condition occurs in children, the disease is called rickets. Scoliosis is a fixed, structural, lateral curvature of the spine with associated rotation of the vertebrae.
