[Pigmented villonodular synovitits of the hip: ultrastructure and aspects on scanning electron microscopy]

The authors studied one case of pigmented, villonodular synovitis (PVNS) of the hip by means of optical microscopy and by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the surface of the PVNS is completely different from that of rheumatic synovitis, in particular that of rheumatoid synovitis. The composition and the cellular morphology of the outer layer of the PVNS appear, however, to be similar to those of normal synovial membrane of arthrosic synovial membrane. Clumps of red corpuscles, enclosed in a fibrin network, were visible on the surface of the PVNS in a way that the authors has never seen previously in the 19 other human synovial membranes, normal and pathological, they had studied in this way. The totality of the microscopic findings confirms the importance of the role played by the intra-articular and intra-synovial haemorrhages, and by the macrophage reactions that follow, in the development of the lesions that characterize PVNS.