[The hemarthroses of articular chondrocalcinosis]

Spontaneous haemarthrosis may occur during the evolution of articular chondrocalcinosis. It occurs mainly in older women and involves the knee in particular. The disorder may recur in the same or in different joints. A study of 11 case histories and counts of red blood corpuscles in samples of synovial fluid confirm that bleeding occurs more readily in chondrocalcinosis than in arthrosis alone. The proposed mechanism of haemarthrosis is only a hypothesis, but it is possible to imagine the onset of microcrystalline flow in a joint that is senile and affected by arthrosis. It is suspected that repeated haemarthrosis favours an oseolytic evolution in certain cases of chondrocalcinosis.