Delayed wound healing in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints. It occurs in a symmetrical pattern, which means that if one knee or hand is involved, the other is also (Box 1). It is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory tissue disorder of unknown origin and in addition to joint stiffness, ankylosis (fixation of a joint), and associated joint deformity, patients may have systemic involvement of the eyes, kidneys, chest, and lungs (Ryan, 1995). It is thought that the autoimmune component of the disease can have significant multi-system effects, including scleritis (inflammation of the white of the eye, the sclera), pericarditis, pleural effusions, vasculitis (patchy inflammation of the walls of small blood vessels), and skin ulceration (Oliver and Mooney, 2002).