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Septic Arthritis is also known as infectious arthritis, bacterial, or fungal arthritis. It is the purulent invasion of a joint by an infectious agent which produces arthritis. The condition is an inflammation of a joint that's caused by infection. Typically, septic arthritis affects one large joint in the body, such as the knee or hip. Less frequently, septic arthritis can affect multiple joints. Septic arthritis is considered a medical emergency. If untreated, it may destroy the joint in a period of days. The infection may also spread to other parts of the body.
Pathophysiology: The major consequence of bacterial invasion is damage to articular cartilage. This may be due to the particular organism's pathologic properties, such as the chondrocyte proteases of S aureus, as well as to the host's polymorphonuclear leukocytes response. The cells stimulate synthesis of cytokines and other inflammatory products, resulting in the hydrolysis of essential collagen and proteoglycans. Infection with N gonorrhoeae induces a relatively mild influx of white blood cells (WBCs) into the joint, explaining, in part, the minimal joint destruction observed with infection with this organism relative to destruction associated with S aureus infection.
Statistics: Most septic joints develop as a result of hematogenous seeding of the vascular synovial membrane due to a bacteremic episode. Although a rare cause, acute septic arthritis may also occur as a result of joint aspiration or local corticosteroid joint injection. In addition, bacterial arthritis may arise secondary to penetrating trauma (such as human or animal bite or nail puncture) or after trauma to a joint without an obvious break in the skin. The direct introduction of bacteria during joint surgery has increasingly been a source of bacterial arthritis, particularly in association with knee and hip arthroplasties. When a bone infection breaks through the outer cortex and into the intracapsular region, a joint infection may also result, especially in children. In infants, small capillaries cross the epiphyseal growth plate and permit extension of infection into the epiphysis and joint space. In children older than 1 year, osteomyelitis infection presumably starts in the metaphyseal sinusoidal veins and is usually contained by the growth plate. The joint is spared unless the metaphysis is intracapsular. The infection spreads laterally, where it breaks through the cortex and lifts the loose periosteum to form a subperiosteal abscess. In adults, the growth plate has resorbed and the infection may again extend to the joint spaces.