The Division of Rheumatology provides both outpatient consultation and management, and inpatient consultation. There are approximately 4,000 outpatient visits per year.
The division has special clinical interests in rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile-onset arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, viral arthritis, and vasculitis.
The staff of the pediatric rheumatology at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital service, diagnose, and treat children with signs or symptoms suggestive of a rheumatic disease—arthritis, musculoskeletal (muscle and bone) pain, muscle weakness, unexplained fever, or rash, or both, chronic fatigue, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and unexplained multi-system disease. We treat children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile dermatomysitis (a progressive inflammatory disease), systemic lupus erythematosus (an inflammatory disease), diseases of the spine), systemic vasculitic syndromes, reactive joint disease, fibromyalgia, scleroderma, Lyme disease, and scarcoidosis. Coordination of joint disease management in conjunction with pediatric orthopaedic and rehabilitative services allows the child to achieve maximum pain relief and ability to live independently while controlling the potential for long term degenerative changes.
