Pediatric Rheumatic Diseases: A Systematic Review of the Saudi Population

One of the important methods of improving medical care is the population’s awareness of common diseases, within their respective communities. This is also relevant in diseases where early management can prevent major morbidities and expected mortality. Major rheumatologic diseases are seen in higher prevalence in our region and for such a delicate population like pediatrics, proper knowledge about them is necessary to the child and adolescent well-being. We aim to present the latest information about the situation of the most common rheumatic diseases within the sociodemographic context of Saudi Arabia, along with the latest updates in management. PubMed database was used for article selection and the following keys were used in the mesh ("[epidemiology] and [pathophysiology] and [clinical features] and [diagnosis] and [management]) including the selected diseases. Rheumatological diseases pose significant clinical challenges not only to the patients and community but also to physicians due to a variety of possible clinical presentations. Moreover, these diseases cause a major load on the medical staff, community, and financial aspect, with their morbidity and even mortality. Thus, having a clear idea about these diseases is vital for all clinicians to spread awareness to the patients and thus, the community since some of them can even be preventable. However, our local awareness, understanding, and even prevalence of these diseases in Saudi Arabia still needs many studies to establish a clear idea about the society and not just based on a few studies.