inflammation of cartilage and perichondrium. In cartilage, which lacks blood vessels and nerves, necrosis develops more commonly than inflammation. Chondritis occurs during infectious diseases whose causative agents produce chondrolytic enzymes, such as typhus, as well as after injuries. The most common form of chondritis is costal chondritis (Tietze’s syndrome), characterized by pain, swelling, and the eventual formation of fistulas. Such respiratory disturbances as edema of the glottis may occur in chondritis of the larynx. In arthritis, the cartilage of the joints is affected. The treatment of chondritis is conservative; surgery is performed if necrosis or fistulas develop.