Is there a place for knee arthroscopy in rheumatoid arthritis?

The role of arthroscopy in rheumatoid arthritis for the knee joint is a subject of dispute among Orthopaedic surgeons. On one hand, a school of thought states that the Rheumatology specialist is fully responsible for the treatment of the disease, until it progresses far enough that a knee arthroplasty is necessary. On the other hand, a significant number of surgeons consider that an arthroscopic synovectomy has merit in cases where medical treatment is insufficient, even though the relief is temporary. We have performed an overview of recent scientific articles, in order to find sound evidence to sustain either point of view. We aimed to extract data from literature that included an objective and quantifiable measurements of before and after patient status through scores, both as general well-being as well as local evolution. We also took into consideration the short term evolution of the rheumatoid arthritis after arthroscopy.

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