[Significance and importance of physical medicine in the context of conservative therapy for rheumatic patients].

Rheumatic diseases usually progress to morphological and functional deficits and thus cause impairment of physical health and function. Based on this fact physiotherapeutic options are elementary and indispensable in clinical rheumatology and orthopedic surgery. This article focuses on the significance and importance of physical medicine in the context of conservative therapy in rheumatic patients. Furthermore, an overview is presented about the basic principles and therapeutic options, the consequences of rheumatic diseases, the reality of health care and the evidence for individual physiotherapeutic measure.