Arthritis caused by metastatic melanoma

✍ Scribed by Fetze Speerstra; Agnes M. Th. Boerbooms; Levinus B. A. Van De Putte; Henricus J. A. Kruls; Urbain J. G. M. Van Haelst; Gijsbert P. Vooijs

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 377 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780250218

✦ Synopsis

Arthritis caused by metastatic malignancies in synovial tissue is rare. Seventeen documented cases have been reported, all originating from epithelial tumors, including carcinomas of the lung (1-9), breast (9-1 I), colon (12), urinary bladder (13), and prostate (9). and a tumor of undetermined origin (9). This report concerns the previously unreported occurrence of arthritis of the knee due to metastatic spread of malignant melanoma into synovial tissue and juxtaarticular bone, 22 years after surgical removal of the primary tumor of the skin.

Case Report. In February 1980, a 73-year-old white man was admitted to a hospital with extremely painful swelling of the left knee. He was unable to walk. Symptoms of arthritis had begun 6 months before and had gradually increased in severity. There was no history of infectious disease, trauma, backache, ocular or gastrointestinal disease, psoriasis, urethritis, or previous arthritis.

In 1958, a malignant melanoma of the left chest wall had been excised. Eight years later, a chest radiogram disclosed a solitary tumor in the left lung field. Lobectomy of the left upper lobe was performed