Abstract

Although many reports have pointed out that recurrent pain and swelling with nontraumatic hemarthrosis of the knee in a young child suggests the diagnosis of synovial hemangioma, the diagnosis is often not made for several years. Too often, the patient with recurrent knee effusions is not diagnosed because symptoms abate between episodes, and each episode is often attributed to minor trauma. Aspiration of the hemarthrosis should alert the physician to a more severe underlying cause. Because a clinical diagnosis will be made only if the clinician is aware of the condition, we reviewed the 195 cases previously reported to emphasize the common features of the condition. The two cases reported here show once more that preoperative diagnosis of a synovial hemangioma of the knee is a challenge. We add our experience to the few cases of successful arthroscopic removal of synovial hemangioma reported in the literature.