Rapid Onset Joint Pain

When joint pain appears suddenly it is considered rapid onset. A disease that exhibits itself rapidly following an illness, or for some unidentifiable reason, is termed an acute condition or disease as opposed to a chronic condition.

Sometimes a Mystery

• Rheumatologists are often faced with patients who experience rapid onset of joint pain, which can be perplexing if there is no known or obvious reason for the pain, such as an illness that precedes the pain.

Features

• Your doctor will try to determine if the problem is non-inflammatory or inflammatory, whether it is arthritis and what the joint pattern involvement is, and if there are systemic features that are associated with the rapid onset of joint pain.

Types

• Rapid onset joint pain can be the result of pain that originates from outside the joint or from near-the-joint structures that are called periarticular, according to Arthritis-treatment-and-relief.com.

Migratory

• Migratory arthritis is characterized by swelling of one or two joints, which occurs rapidly. The problem resolves itself within a few days, according to AAFP.org. However, once the symptoms disappear, comparable symptoms can show up in another joint. When this happens you may have Lyme disease, Whipple's disease, sarcoidosis, bacterial endocarditis, gonococcal arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus.

Injury

• If you have injured your knee joint, this can result in rapid onset of pain and swelling. An injury can cause haemarthrosis or internal bleeding. If you tore a ligament or injured a joint capsule, rapid onset of joint pain is likely to occur, according to Painclinic.org.