The goals of management of an acute septic arthritis are to identify the infecting organism, to administrate the appropriate antibiotics and irrigate and drain the affected joint, most of the time. Today, some authors have reported the advantages of the arthroscopically drainage.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the experience about this last procedure at our Hospital and
compare clinical results obtained with arthrotoту.
We retrospectively reviewed 21 patients treated consecutive in the last 5 years. Most of the patients were male
(71%) and average age was 48. The knee was most common affected joint (71%) and 33% of cases were identify the mecanism infection acquired. Culture were positive in 43% of cases and the most common isolated bacteria was Staphylococcus positive coagulasa (56%). 12 patients were drainged by arthrotomy, 6 arthroscopically and 3 were not draineged. Comparing both techniques, we found a shorter hospitalization time, with an average of 7 days and a better functional outcome in those patients treated with arthroscopic method. This results, like others reports, support some advantages of arthroscopy over arthrotomy as a method of abscess evacuation infected joint.
joint.
Erskine, P. ., Hinzpeter, J. ., Gross, K. ., & Catalán, J. . (1999). Artritis séptica: Ventajas del drenaje artroscópico. Revista Hospital Clínico Universidad De Chile, 10(1), pp. 5–10. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7996.1999.80811
