Gonococcal arthritis. Clinical features correlated with blood, synovial fluid and genitourinary cultures

✍ Scribed by Kenneth D. Brandt; Edgar S. Cathcart; Alan S. Cohen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 498 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780170502

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The clinical picture was analyzed in 31 patients with acute arthritis and proven gonococcal infection. Patients with positive blood cultures and those with positive synovial fluid cultures were mutually exclusive. However, these two groups were indistinguishable on the basis of mean duration of illness prior to initial examination, the number of joints involved or the magnitude of synovial fluid leukocytosis. Notably, features that have been particularly associated with gonococcemia—eg, chills, a migratory polyarticular prodrome and typical skin lesions, were present in most cases. Thus, on clinical grounds none of the patients in the present series could be clearly categorized into either the bacteremic or septic joint syndromes of gonococcal arthritis.