Chronic synovitis with early cartilage destruction in sickle cell disease.

Two patients with sickle cell disease presented with joint pain and early x-ray evidence of articular cartilage loss. Both later developed increasingly destructive arthritis with chronic synovitis identified in synovial biopsies. One patient developed demonstrable aseptic necrosis. Destructive arthropathy is much less common than the frequent transient effusions in sickle cell disease.