[Progressive articular contractures. A little known complication of insulin-dependent diabetes (author's transl)].

A 17-year-old patient with insulin-dependent diabetes since the age of 2 developed limitation in the range of joint movements (wrist, interphalangeal, metacarpophalangeal, elbows, knees) which progressively worsened. It is important to seek such articular complications which would seem to be common and probably underestimated in terms of their importance regarding the professional future of these patients. Associated dwarfism (as seen in our own patient) would seem to be rare. The aetiopathogenesis remains hypothetical. It is only by verification of these hypotheses, in particular that of the possibility of increased polymerisation of collagen, that therapeutic deductions (d-penicillamine) may be envisaged.