Musculoskeletal case study – Term Paper

Musculoskeletal Disorder is conditions which affect individuals muscle, bones and joints. Mr. Tony is a male gymnastics teacher in one the local school. He is well-known for having muscle weakness in his face, and this has become worse in the last five months. The teacher experiences tired jaws while chewing, and sometimes when he reads for a longer period, he experiences double vision. Also, the teacher is not capable of making essential acrobatic moves due to weaknesses in the upper arm.

The teacher is believed to be suffering from Myasthenia Gravis, a rare chronic autoimmune disease that is marked by muscular weakness without atrophy. Tony has been undergoing treatments that have been aiming at relieving symptoms such as fatigue, hoarse voice, facial paralysis, Double vision and drooping eyelids. To improve the functionality of skeletal muscle, the teacher has been using Anticholinesterase drugs. The drugs enhance contraction and improved communication between muscles. However, these drugs do not fully cure myasthenia gravis, in fact, the medication has a serious side effect when there is a muscarinic overdose such as diabetes, infertility among others.

Notably, Tony require to under additional treatment when her symptoms become more severe such as plasmapheresis which has less side effect. The treatment involves taking blood plasma out of the body, treated then taken back. It is essential for Tom to undertake this treatment since it eliminates affected plasma and replaces it with good plasma. It is advisable for Tom to seek such medication soon since he may experience respiratory failure. The voluntary muscles including a diaphragm and intercostal are weakened due to fatigue caused by the disease. Since the muscles are part of the respiratory tract, they might stop working thus leading to respiratory failure.

Reference

Bird, S. J. (2013). Treatment of Myasthenia gravis. Wolters Kluwer Health. Available at: http://www. uptodate. Com/contents/treatment-of-myasthenia-gravis. Accessed May, 13, 2013.