Monoarticular juvenile chronic arthritis of the shoulder. Report of a case and review of the literature

Abstract

In 20% of the cases Juvenile Chronic Arthritis (JCA) has a monoarticular onset. Usually the inflammatory process spreads out to other joints with pauciarticular or polyarticular course. Very rarely the disease persists in one joint only and this is in about 70% of the cases, the knee. We describe a case of Monoarticular JCA with isolate and persistent involvement of the shoulder never reported in the literature. The clinical, pathologic features and different diagnoses are discussed.