[Principles of treatment of gout and hyperuricemia]

Gout can be considered to be a group of diseases that are typified by acute arthritis, tophi and kidney stones. The acute attacks of arthritis should be treated with standard anti-inflammatory agents and the patient should receive maintenance therapy after the second acute attack. The dangers of asymptomatic hyperuricaemia are acute arthritis and uric acid kidney stones. Patients should be treated when the serum uric acid level is greater than 0,54 mmol/l or if the urinary uric acid excretion is greater than 4,2 mmol/l/24 h.