Arthroscopy as a research tool: a review.

Arthroscopy continues to experience a growth in interest from the rheumatology community reflecting a common desire to gain better understanding of the underlying processes in inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases. Arthroscopy provides the ability to assess the internal appearances of a joint in a well tolerated and repeatable manner, to obtain tissue samples from the principle site of pathology within the joint and thus confers on it the role of "gold standard" amongst currently available imaging techniques. The evolution of arthroscopy is reviewed together with an overview of the evidence obtained from its research application in the rheumatology. Methodology for the conduct of arthroscopy and synovial biopsy is described.