Predicting the Presence of Adjacent Infections in Septic Arthritis in Children

摘要

Background: The gold standard for treatment of septic arthritis is urgent surgical debridement. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may identify osteomyelitis, subperiosteal abscesses, and intramuscular abscesses, which frequently occur with septic arthritis. If these adjacent infections are not recognized, initial treatment may be inadequate. The purpose of this study is to develop a prediction algorithm to distinguish septic arthritis with adjacent infections from isolated septic arthritis to determine which patients should undergo preoperative MRI.