Arthritis Mutilans is seen in ?

a. Psoriatic arhtropathy.
b.Rheumatoid arthritis.
c.Spondyloarthropathy.
d.Reactive arthritis.


Ans: B

Arthritis mutilans, is a rare arthropathy of the hands also known as opera glass hand or chronic absorptive arthritis.

Arthritis mutilans occurs mainly in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but can occur independently.

In Arthritis mutilans a patient's fingers become shortened by arthritis, and the shortening may become severe enough that that the hand looks pawlike, with the first deformity occurring at the interphalangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints.

The excess skin from the shortening of the phalanx bones becomes folded transversly, as if retracted into one another like opera glasses, hence the description la main en lorgnette.

As the condition worsens, luxation, phalangeal and metacarpal bone absorption, and skeletal architecture loss in the fingers occurs.

Arthritis mutilans may be successfully treated by iliac-bone graft and arthrodesis of the interphalangeal joints and the metacarpophalangeal joint in each finger.