Living With Septic Arthritis

Septic arthritis is a type of arthritis that is infectious or bacterial in nature which causes inflammation of a joint after the infection.

Septic arthritis usually infects a single large joint somewhere on the body, typically the knee or hip, though septic arthritis can quickly spread through multiple joints if the infection is allowed to grow. Typical bacteria that have been known to cause septic arthritis include streptococcus, staphyloccus, and Haemophilus influenza. These are common post operative infections, open wounds, or even a contaminated needle.

Infections such as hepatitis A, B, and C, HIV, AIDS, mumps, Ebola, and coxsackie viruses have also been known to cause septic arthritis. Septic arthritis displays itself in the following symptoms: swelling and increased fluid accumulation in the joint, severe pain when moved, inability to move the limb, low-grade fever, chills and fatigue.

What Causes Septic Arthritis?

The main causes of septic arthritis are viruses, fungi, and bacteria, such as staphylococcus aurous, and in some patient E. coli may also cause infection. In sexually active young adults gonorrhea may be the cause as well as tuberculosis.

The joint infection usually manifest when there are certain risk factors involved, such as medication of autoimmune disorders, intravenous drug users, post-operative surgery infection, or prior medical conditions such as alcoholism, sickle cell disease, and diabetes as well as rheumatic diseases.

Patients who have prosthetic joints or prosthetic joint surgery are also at risk and usually in the first three months of receiving the implant and can last up to two years afterwards during the healing process. Those prosthetic joint infections are usually as a result of S aureus and the spread of infectious foci through the blood stream.

How Is Septic Arthritis Treated?

The standard treatment for the condition known as septic arthritis is a regime of stringent antibiotics along with the draining of the infected fluid from the inflamed joint. Antibiotics are usually given in an attempt to curb the spread of infection from the infected joint to other joints within the body.

Draining of the infected joint is integral to the treatment of septic arthritis, which is usually aspirated via syringe and needle multiple times throughout the day or along with any accompanying surgical procedures though the method of fluid removal changes depending on the location of the joint. Usually a warm compress and elevating the infected limb or joint – as well as bed rest – is necessary.

Usually during an arthroscopic procedure, the physician will irrigate the infected joint and removed the inflamed and infected tissue. If the infected joint cannot be effectively drained then the drains may be left in the limb or joint in an effort to irrigate the fluid that builds up.