Current state and prospects of gout treatment in Korea

Abstract

Effective management of gout includes the following: appropriate control of gout flares; lifestyle modifications; management of comorbidities; and long-term urate-lowering therapy (ULT) to prevent subsequent gout flares, structural joint damage, and shortening of life expectancy. In addition to traditional treatments for gout, novel therapies have been introduced in recent years. Indeed, new recommendations for the management of gout have been proposed by various international societies. Although effective and safe medications to treat gout have been available, management of the disease has continued to be suboptimal, with poor patient adherence to ULT and failure to reach serum urate target. This review outlines recent progress in gout management, mainly based on the latest published guidelines, and specifically provides an update on efficient strategies for implementing treatment, efficacy and safety of specific medications for gout, and cardiovascular outcomes of ULT. In particular, we reviewed gout management approaches that can be applied to a Korean population.

Association between Hyperuricemia and Hearing Impairment: Results from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

“…In a case-matched cohort study, hyperuricemia patients without gout who received uric acid-lowering therapy had potentially better survival than patients who did not receive uric acid-lowering therapy [ 41 ]. The current guidelines do not recommend initiating uric acid-lowering therapy in patients with asymptomatic hyperuricemia because the benefits of uric acid-lowering therapy would not outweigh the potential treatment costs or risks for a large number of patients [ 42 , 43 ]. It is deemed that regulating uric acid levels in individuals who are indicated for uric acid-lowering therapy might be beneficial for reducing the risk of comorbidities and maintaining auditory function.…”