Rheumatologist v/s Traumatologist? Who should I go to?

My knee hurts, my hip hurts, my joint hurts, should I go to the traumatologist? Even today many people believe so, although that would be the same as a person suffering from chest pain and cough go to the heart surgeon to operate. Which is the right specialist?

The bone specialist

The idea that the "bone specialist" is the traumatologist is still deeply rooted. This ignorance and confusion are partly explained by the fact that rheumatology is one of the most recent medical specialties in internal medicine in our country, not being recognized as an independent medical specialty until a few decades ago. Until then, the treatment of disorders of the locomotor system had fallen on traumatologists and orthopedic surgeons, although, in most cases, patients would not need surgical treatment.

The appropriate and logical process in all diseases and disorders of the joints should be as follows: general practitioner, to identify the possible disease, rheumatologist, to apply pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, and, ultimately, the orthopedic traumatologist to perform surgical interventions. The rheumatologist is the appropriate specialist to diagnose and treat locomotor disorders such as osteoarthritis by non-surgical means. Following the example of osteoarthritis, only as a last option, the rheumatologist will refer his patients to the surgery specialist to treat osteoarthritis by means of hip or knee prostheses.  Go to the physiotherapist it is also an error since the physiotherapist is generally responsible for applying the treatment, not to diagnose the disease or to determine the treatment to follow.

Traumatologists and rheumatologists how are they different?

The rheumatologist is the medical specialist who diagnoses and treats diseases of the locomotor system and is the first specialist to assess, diagnose and treat such diseases , while the orthopedic surgeon is a specialist in the field of surgical or orthopedic treatment of diseases of bones, tendons or joints, whether traumatic (strokes, sprains) or congenital, or to surgically intervene the consequences that medical treatment could not prevent in rheumatic diseases. To put it in a simple way: the rheumatologist is the doctor and the traumatologist is the surgeon.

It is necessary to carry out awareness-raising among the population as this will surely result in better health care for patients. So, when asked if " my knee hurts " or " my hip hurts when walking ", the answer is clear: the rheumatologist.