[The joint hypermobility syndrome in a Cuban juvenile population]

In order to review the rise in joint hypermobility syndrome, identify the patterns associated with this diagnosis and correlate its most relevant symptoms, we did a descriptive transversal analytic study in a group of 280 young people of both genders between 15 and 17 years of age. A survey was carried out by the authors in order to get reach these objectives. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and processed with the Epidat3.1 software package. Results are shown in charts.

The joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS) was diagnosed in 32 people (11,4% of the population studied) with mean age 15,7 years, predominance in the female sex and in the white skin group (p<0,01) 53.1% of those patients with hypermobility presented skin lesions associated to hereditary diseases of the connective tissue; among them the most relevant clinical sign was the presence of hematomas (p=0.003). Symptoms of dysautonomia were associated to JHS (p⩽0.05) and correlated positively with the presence of hematomas. Moderate and severe chronic pain was also a feature of patients with the syndrome (p=0.001) and was correlated in a positive manner to the hematomas.

Vascular affection as demonstrated by the formation of hematomas was the skin lesion more important among young people with JHS in this study. These lesions can be representative of the syndrome and a translate a larger damage at the connective tissue level.