Orthopedics - Oleksa A.P. 2006

Joint diseases
Arthritis of undetermined etiology
Felty's syndrome

This syndrome was first described in 1929 by A. R. Felty and, according to modern data, is considered a clinical variant of rheumatoid Arthritis. It is extremely rare and has been documented in the literature largely as case reports.

The clinical course of the disease does not differ from the articular-visceral form of Rheumatoid Polyarthritis.

Joint involvement is less pronounced than in standard rheumatoid polyarthritis, though the joints remain swollen and painful.

In addition to joint manifestations, Felty's syndrome is characterized by significant Splenomegaly accompanied by corresponding Blood abnormalities (leukopenia, granulocytopenia, thrombocytopenia, and anemia).

According to V. A. Nasonova and M. D. Umetova (1983), neutrophils heavily loaded with phagocytosed immune complexes undergo particularly extensive destruction within the Spleen. Histological examination of the spleen reveals tissue hyperplasia with foci of necrosis, vascular congestion, and sinusoidal dilation resulting from vasculitis, which is characteristic of the rheumatoid process (Makarenko I. I., Romanchekova K. P., 1966).

Other Characteristic Features of the syndrome include lymphadenopathy, pellagroid pigmentation of exposed Skin areas, amyotrophy, progressive weight loss, and hepatomegaly.

The pathological blood alterations impair the body's resistance, thereby predisposing patients to infectious complications.

Diagnosis of the syndrome is based on clinical and laboratory findings.

The Treatment of Felty's syndrome is similar to that of rheumatoid polyarthritis.



Last update: 10/08/2026

Editorial and Educational Adaptation: This material has been compiled based on the primary/original source text. The project team performed an editorial review, corrected technical inaccuracies, structured sections, and adapted the content for an educational format.

What was processed:

  • elimination of formatting defects (OCR errors, structural breaks, corrupted characters);
  • editorial organization of content;
  • standardization of terminology in accordance with academic sources;
  • verification of factual statements against the original source text.

All mentions of the author, publication year, and origin of the primary text have been preserved in accordance with the source.