Chronic synovitis may follow upon an acute attack of the disease, or arise directly from an injury inflicted upon a joint.

As in acute synovitis, the joint capsule is more or less distended with fluid, and bulges at certain points where most exposed. The pain, however, is not so severe as in the acute form of the disease. In this connection considerable variation is observed from time to time. One day the patient gives promise of improvement, but this is mostly followed by a set-back sooner or later, and the general tendency of the malady is in the direction of an unfavourable issue.

The joint, after becoming filled with serous fluid, may ultimately contain pus (matter), which sooner or later escapes through abscesses on the surface. The appetite becomes indifferent, the constitutional disturbance is severe, and the patient succumbs to the exhausting effects of protracted suffering associated with blood-poisoning.

On the whole these cases offer but little hope of successful treatment.

The system should be sustained by good food, with stimulants when required, and the local treatment should be pursued on the lines laid down for acute synovitis.