[A 2-year follow-up results of knee arthroscopic synovectomy plus disease modifying antirheumatic drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of knee arthroscopic synovectomy plus disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: A total of 97 RA patients were treated with knee arthroscopic synovectomy plus DMARD after arthroscopy. The control group received only DMARD. The patients were assessed at pre-treatment and 1, 6, 12, 24 month post-treatment. Tender joint count, swollen joint count, morning stiffness, resting pain, patient global assessment, physician global assessment, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), rheumatoid factor (RF) and disease activity score (DAS) 28 were observed. RESULTS: Tender joint count, swollen joint count, morning stiffness, resting pain, patient global assessment, physician global assessment and DAS 28 score improved significantly at 1, 6 month post-treatment in the combined treatment group versus the control group. At 2 years post-treatment, there was still significant difference in DAS28 between two groups. CONCLUSION: The combined treatment of knee arthroscopic synovectomy and disease modifying antirheumatic drugs can control the disease activity of RA during an early period. And a long-term efficacy may be maintained.