Arthroscopic synovectomy of the knee joint in early cases of rheumatoid arthritis: follow-up results of a multicenter study.

A retrospective multicenter study on a total of 93 knee joints in 81 patients with early forms of rheumatoid arthritis treated by arthroscopic synovectomy was carried out. During the average follow-up period of 33 months, the patients' clinical state showed appreciable improvement. The Lysholm score modified by Klein and Jensen increased from 43.2 points preoperatively to 78.1 points at follow-up. Also, the Insall score (knee score and functional score) showed a highly significant increase of 25.7 and 25.2 points to 71.2 and 80.2 points, respectively. Patients receiving additional radiation synovectomy showed a highly significantly better result than those receiving synovectomy alone. Among the individual variables investigated, pain, swelling, and walking distance in particular were improved. Only radiologically was a mild worsening observed (from Larsen stage 1.57 preoperatively to 1.95 at follow-up). The follow-up examination revealed no synovitis in 80.6% of the patients. Subjectively, 76.4% of the patients assessed the results to be good or very good, with only 7.5% remaining unsatisfied. 90.3% of the patients declared themselves in retrospect willing to undergo the operation again.