Author(s): Kehinde Sunmboye and John L. Klein
Consider the diagnosis in any patient who has fever with joint pain and swelling, particularly if only one large joint is involved.
- Septic arthritis is typically mono-articular but can be poly-articular (15% of cases).
- The knee is the joint most commonly involved, followed by the elbow, shoulder and hip.
- Staphylococcus aureus is the causative organism in 50% of cases of native joint infection; other causative organisms include streptococci, gonococci and Gram-negative bacilli.
- Prosthetic joint infection is caused by a wider range of pathogens.
Your clinical assessment should address the following points:
- Does the patient have arthritis or periarticular inflammation (bursitis, tendinitis or cellulitis)? Painful limitation of movement of the joint suggests arthritis. Causes of acute mono- or oligo-arthritis are given in Table 28.1 (p. 183).
- Is the patient at risk of septic arthritis? Septic arthritis usually follows an overt or occult bacteraemia (e.g. from infective endocarditis, pneumonia or IV drug use) in a patient at risk because of rheumatoid arthritis, the presence of a prosthetic joint, or immunosuppression (including anti-TNF therapy).
- Could this be a crystal arthritis (gout or pseudogout; Chapter 97): is there a history of previous similar attacks of arthritis?
- Could this be a reactive arthritis: is there an associated rash, diarrhoea, urethritis or uveitis?
- Could this be gonococcal arthritis (Table 98.1)?
Aspirate the joint (Chapter 124) and send synovial fluid for cell count (in an EDTA tube; normal cell count is <180/mm3, most mononuclear); Gram stain; culture; and microscopy under polarized light for crystals. Other investigations needed urgently are given in Table 98.2.
- If you are not familiar with joint aspiration, ask the help of a rheumatologist or orthopaedic surgeon.
- Both crystal and septic arthritis give rise to a purulent effusion, although the white cell count is usually higher in septic arthritis (50,000200,000/mm3), with a polymorphonuclear cell count of >90%.
- Bloodstaining of the effusion is common in pseudogout but rare in sepsis.
Sharff KA, Richards EP, Townes JM (2013) Clinical management of septic arthritis. Curr Rheumatol Rep 15, 332. DOI: 10.1007/s11926-013-0332-4.