Gout: nursing and medical actions.

Sally Chesson and Sarah Redfern give an overview of the signs, symptoms and nursing care of individuals suffering from gout. Principally a disease affecting men, this condition, extremely painful in the acute stages, is definitively diagnosed by the detection of crystals in joint aspirate. Pain results from the deposition of crystalline sodium urate in the synovial joint but nursing care also requires consideration of associated immobility, anxiety and irritability which the patient may experience.