Which doctor treats periostitis
Since periostitis is usually a disease of the musculoskeletal system, the orthopedic surgeon is usually the best contact person for the complaints. However, the symptoms can also be recognized and treated by the family doctor. However, because a diagnosis to exclude other causes of the pain makes sense, general practitioners refer most of those affected to an orthopedist.
Duration of periostitis
Unfortunately, it is only possible to make general statements on the duration of periostitis to a limited extent. This is mainly due to the fact that it depends on the extent, intensity and cause of the periosteal inflammation, as well as on the consistency with which the patient follows the therapy guidelines. For this reason, the following information can only be regarded as guidelines.
For milder forms of periosteal inflammation due to overuse, it can be assumed that with the help of the basic measures described above, comprehensive relief should be achieved within 1-2 weeks. Nevertheless, it is important not to rush back into heavy stress, whether at work, in leisure time or sports, in order not to jeopardize the success of the therapy. Slowly increasing the load is therefore the key to success here, in order to achieve lasting relief of the symptoms.
In more severe cases, the treatment of osteomyelitis caused by overstrain can take several weeks or even a few months. Here, too, the duration of treatment depends to a large extent on the patient’s adherence to the therapy. If the patient’s adherence to the therapy is insufficient, periostitis can even become chronic.
In this condition it is very difficult to treat effectively. If such a chronicity occurs, surgical treatment can be considered. Following this, the affected part of the body should again be consistently protected for several weeks to a month. If the cause of periostitis is a bacterial infection, a relatively rapid response to the medication administered can usually be expected. Since the periostitis is not caused by overstrain, the decisive signal for resuming exercise in this case is not the subsidence of pain in the affected bone, but the overall physical condition of the patient (e.g., subsidence of fever that may have occurred in parallel).
