Follow-up of one year or more (an average of three years) on ninety-eight cases of synovectomy of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the finger in rheumatoid arthritis showed that relief of pain was complete in seventy-three and partial in fourteen. There was loss of only a few degrees of motion on the average, mostly in patients with contracture of the intrinsic muscles. In only one patient did a boutonnière deformity develop. Recurrence of the synovitis occurred in 30 per cent of the patients but was persistent in only five patients.