[Arthropathies due to bismuth poisoning].

Encephalopathies caused by intoxication with bismuth are liable to be complicated by arthropathies of the shoulder, on one or both sides, of an osteolytic, and probably osteonecrotic, type involving to a greater or lesser extent the humeral head and/or by destruction of articular cartilage with ateration and flattening of the heumeral head. The relation between these arthropathies and bismuth intoxication appears certain but is not yet understood. The strict electivity of the condition for the shoulder is not understood either. Certain analogies indicate similarity with metabolic arthropathies.