Non-surgical synovectomy (basic principles)

Non-surgical synovectomy is an important therapeutical method, the spreading of which is due to intensive research in the ways of treatment, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis. Various procedures have been worked out to settle pathological changes first on the synovial membrane (synoviorthesis) by intraarticular administration of pharmacological substances. From this point of view, we report on cortisonoids, chloroquine, cytostatic drugs, pyrazolone derivates and antiproteolytic substances. Special attention is paid to osmic acid and radioactive colloids as possible. It is a matter of the physician's skill and further research to find the optimal drug for synoviorthesis so as to introduce it into the long-term and systematic therapeutical programme necessarily required by rheumatoid arthritis.