Treatment of crystal arthropathy--history and advances.

The history of gout and the many distinguished historical figures who have suffered the agonies of this crystal deposition disorder have claimed the attention of medical historians like no other disease. Its treatment with uric acid lowering drugs became a twentieth century paradigm for the successful management and prevention of a chronic rheumatic disease, but the colorful history of the treatment of gout and crystal deposition disorders stretches back over 4,000 years.