[Generalised joint hypermobility and benign joint hypermobility syndrome. II: epidemiology and clinical criteria].

Gender-, age- and race-related generalised joint hypermobility (GJH) is elucidated, based on publications that have used validated criteria for GJH. Furthermore, we analysed the connection between GJH and the clinical criteria for benign joint hypermobility syndrome (BJHS), and we looked for literature on the treatment of BJHS. There seems to be evidence in support of an increased prevalence of hypermobility among children, females and certain races when the diagnosis of hypermobility is based on the Carter and Wilkinson criteria (> or =3 positive tests out of 5) and/or Beighton's tests (> or =4 positive tests out of 9). However, there are no unequivocal statements that hypermobility predisposes to the various clinical situations used as major or minor criteria for BJHS, e.g., arthralgia, low back and pelvic pain, joint luxation, soft tissue rheumatism, abnormal cutis or genitourinary prolapse, varicose veins and hernia. There have been no randomised controlled studies of the effect of treatment.