For most patients, gout is a chronic disease, but acute attacks can cause deadly pain.
Acute attacks of gout often occur at night, and the inducement may be heavy drinking or overeating.
First of all, the pain of a single joint is unbearable. The most common pain sites are the big toe and the back of the foot. Local symptoms such as redness, swelling, pain and skin temperature rise may occur. In severe cases, other joints may be affected at the same time and fever may be caused.
Scenario simulation
Lao Wang and Lao Li are two gout patients. One night they woke up from their sleep at the same time. As there were no painkillers at home, they just had to take [leftover] antibiotics.
They thought to themselves that their toes were swollen and painful. They heard people say that [swollen and hot pain] was an infection. It might be helpful to use some antibiotics, so they all took the medicine.
Lao Wang stayed up until the next day to go to the hospital. Lao Li took the medicine on his own for several days, the pain gradually eased and the days returned to normal. May I ask Lao Li and Lao Wang, who is right?
The answer is: they are all wrong.
Gout attacks are not infections
Long-term chronic hyperuricemia will cause urate crystals to deposit in joints and surrounding soft tissues. When these crystals gradually increase in a certain joint, the body will be induced to produce local aseptic inflammation, causing symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat and pain.
Inexperienced patients may mistake it for a local infection, but in fact acute gout attacks are not infections.
Pain killers can be used, but they are exquisite.
When patients have acute gout attacks at night, it is understandable to temporarily select painkillers to relieve symptoms in order to avoid traveling for medical treatment at night, but the next day they must go to the hospital in time, improve relevant examinations (including blood routine, liver and kidney function), and follow the doctor’s advice to receive correct treatment.
However, the choice of painkillers must be correct and cannot be abused! Commonly used drugs include:
- Colchicine non-steroidal anti-inflammatory hormone
For patients who have not seen a doctor before, self-medication is not recommended, because different painkillers are suitable for people with different situations, and careless medication may bring unnecessary harm.
Don’t use antibiotics indiscriminately when gout attacks
Let’s talk about whether antibiotics are helpful to relieve gout.
1. Antibiotics are ineffective in treating gout.
There are many kinds of antibiotics, which can be taken orally or intravenously. They can kill and sterilize bacteria or inhibit the growth of bacteria through different mechanisms. However, the vast majority of acute gout attacks are local aseptic inflammation. Unless there is concurrent infection (upper respiratory tract infection, etc.), antibiotics are useless for heroes.
2. Misuse of antibiotics may hurt the kidney.
The use of antibiotics during acute gout attacks is not only unhelpful to acute gout attacks, but also brings greater burden to the kidneys.
Kidney, as the key organ of the body to eliminate various harmful metabolites, has already discharged uric acid during overload work when gout attacks. The use of antibiotics undoubtedly increases the workload of the kidney, because most antibiotics (such as penicillin, cephalosporins, etc.) need to be discharged through the kidney.
Dear patient, when you read until now, do you know that Lao Wang and Lao Li did the wrong what?
Let’s look at the correct approach again:
Lao Zhang is a gout patient and a loyal reader of gout doctors (WeChat public number: tfyisheng). He has a history of gout for many years, but he has not paid special attention to it before. Recently, he read many articles pushed by gout doctors and went to regular hospitals.
That night, he suddenly woke up from pain in his sleep. His right big toe was red and swollen. Due to the cold weather at night and the distance from the nearby hospital, he did not go to the emergency department immediately. Instead, he reluctantly dug up the painkillers prescribed by the doctor not long ago. After taking the painkillers, he drank a lot of water (which helps to promote the excretion of uric acid) and then returned to bed to continue to rest.
Wait until the next day, he took the previous examination data and medical history records and took a taxi to the nearest hospital clinic.
Perhaps some readers have doubts when looking at this: Since they have received regular treatment, why do they still have gout? Such examples are not uncommon.
To learn more in detail, click on the link on the right to view: > > Why is there gout attack when taking uric acid lowering drugs?