[Rheumatology emergencies in general practice]

In rheumatology there may occur emergencies especially in the field of inflammable diseases, the sudden occlusion of the central retinal artery in temporal arteritis as an example. Such incidents are rare. The general practitioner is more often confronted with not necessarily threatening, but very painful and function obstructing acute cases. In this paper four typical problems are represented which can be seen in everyday practice, sometimes misleading to wrong actions and therefore needing to be recognized in time and treated correctly: acute low back pain, periarthropathy of the shoulder joint, crystal arthritis and ruptured Baker's cyst.