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Borzio2016 (1)
1. n Feature Article
S
eptic arthritis is a devastating con-
dition that requires a timely diag-
nosis to minimize articular damage
and the associated high rate of morbid-
ity and mortality. The pathogenesis typi-
cally involves 1 of 3 mechanisms: hema-
togenous seeding, direct inoculation, or
spread through local infection. A delay in
diagnosis increases the risk of long-term
sequelae including posttraumatic arthritis,
osteomyelitis, osteonecrosis, sepsis, and
death.1-5
The mortality rate following sep-
tic arthritis is 7% to 15%, thus an urgent
diagnosis is paramount in the evaluation
of an acutely irritated joint.2,4,6-9
Arthrocentesis is a useful diagnostic
modality in differentiating between an in-
flammatory arthropathy, benign process,
and infectious process.2,7,8,10-25
Although a
positive fluid culture is important in mak-
ing an accurate diagnosis, there are high
false-negative rates, relatively poor accu-
JULY/AUGUST 2016 | Volume 39 • Number 4
Predictors of Septic Arthritis in the Adult
Population
Robert Borzio, MD; Neil Mulchandani, MD; Robert Pivec, MD; Bhaveen H. Kapadia, MD;
Dante Leven, DO; Steven F. Harwin, MD; William P. Urban, MD
The authors are from the Department of
Orthopaedic Surgery (RB, NM, RP, BHK, DL,
WPU), SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brook-
lyn, and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
(SFH), Beth Israel Medical Center, New York,
New York.
Drs Borzio, Mulchandani, Leven, and Urban
have no relevant financial relationships to dis-
close. Dr Pivec receives personal fees from DJ
Orthopaedics. Dr Kapadia is a paid consultant
for and is on the speaker’s bureau of Sage Prod-
ucts, Inc. Dr Harwin is a paid consultant for and
is on the speaker’s bureau of Stryker and Con-
vatec and holds stock in Stryker.
Correspondence should be addressed to:
Bhaveen H. Kapadia, MD, Department of Ortho-
paedic Surgery, SUNY Downstate Medical Center,
450 Clarkson Ave, Box 30, Brooklyn, NY 11203
(bhaveen.k@gmail.com).
Received: March 4, 2015; Accepted: Decem-
ber 28, 2015.
doi: 10.3928/01477447-20160606-05
Septic arthritis is a devastating condition; well-established criteria for diagno-
sis exist in the pediatric population, but not for adults. This study evaluated
patient factors and laboratory parameters that may be associated with the di-
agnosis of septic arthritis in adults. A total of 458 knee aspirates for suspected
septic arthritis were evaluated with serum and synovial leukocyte counts and
differentials as well as Kocher criteria for pediatric septic arthritis. Twenty-
two patients (4.8%) had septic arthritis confirmed by a positive synovial fluid
culture. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and serum white blood cell
(WBC) counts were not statistically different between the 2 groups, with 64%
of septic arthritis patients having a normal serum WBC count and 77% being
afebrile. Mean synovial fluid WBC count was 26,758 cells/µL and 70,581
cells/µL in the nonseptic and septic groups, respectively. The likelihood ratio
for a synovial fluid WBC count greater than 65,000 cells/µL was 2.8 (95%
confidence interval, 1.2-6.7). Evaluation receiver operating characteristic
curves using synovial WBC counts resulted in a significant area under the
curve of 0.66 (P=.02). To achieve 90% specificity, a WBC cutoff of 64,000
cells/µL was required with a corresponding sensitivity of 40%. There was
no significant difference in the synovial cell differential of 80% vs 90% in
diagnosing infection. Synovial fluid WBC count greater than 64,000 cells/µL
yielded the optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity. Polymorpho-
nuclear leukocytes, ESR, serum WBC count, fever, and weight-bearing status
were not significant predictors of septic arthritis. This study demonstrates the
limited utility of Kocher criteria in the adult population and the importance of
synovial leukocyte counts. [Orthopedics. 2016; 39(4):e657-e663.]
abstract
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3. JULY/AUGUST 2016 | Volume 39 • Number 4
n Feature Article
trophil, atypical lymphocyte, eosinophil,
and basophil percentage), synovial fluid
findings (cultured organism, cell count,
Gram stain, and segmented neutrophil,
lymphocyte, monocyte, and red blood cell
percentage) for those patients who were
taken to the operating room.
The sensitivity and specificity of the
values for synovial leukocytes were de-
termined by generating receiver operat-
ing characteristic (ROC) curves. Posi-
tive and negative likelihood ratios (LR)
also were calculated for history of fever,
documented fever, weight-bearing status,
synovial fluid leukocyte cutoff levels, and
segmental leukocyte differentials. The ef-
fect of comorbidities, using the Charlson
Comorbidity Index (CCI) on the level of
synovial leukocytes in patients with septic
arthritis, was analyzed using regression
analysis. Application of Kocher criteria
(WBC count >12,000 cells/µL, ESR >40
mm/h, temperature >38.5°C, and history
of non-weight bearing [on the affected
extremity]) was used for comparing the 2
groups of patients.
Positive and negative predictive values
were calculated for each patient. The pro-
portion of true positives was calculated
for each patient along with positive and
negative LR. A P value of less than .05
was used as the cutoff to determine statis-
tical significance. Levene’s test for equal-
ity of variances and t test for equality of
means were used for synovial fluid WBC
count and ESR. Statistical analysis was
performed using SPSS version 22.0 soft-
ware (IBM, Armonk, New York).
Results
Within the combined cohort, a total of
22 patients had septic arthritis confirmed
by a positive synovial fluid culture. Of
these, 15 patients (68%) had a positive
Gram stain, with the most common organ-
ism being Staphylococcus aureus. Bac-
teria identified from the septic arthritis
group are listed in Table 2.
Patients in the nonseptic arthritis group
were older than those in the septic arthritis
group (61.6 vs 51.2 years, P=.012). A his-
tory of fever, temperature, number of co-
morbidities, or weight-bearing status were
not significantly different between the 2
groups (P>.05). The ESR, serum WBC
count, and serum neutrophil percentage
also were not significantly different be-
tween the 2 groups (P>.05) (Table 3). The
platelet count was higher and hematocrit
was lower in the septic arthritis group than
in the nonseptic arthritis group (P=.017
and P=.018, respectively).
The mean synovial fluid WBC count
was 26,758 cells/µL for the nonseptic ar-
thritis group and 70,581 cells/µL for the
septic arthritis group (P=.001) (Figure 1).
The percentage of PMN cells in the syno-
vial fluid was slightly higher in the septic
arthritis group; however, this difference
was not statistically significant (84.4% in
the septic arthritis group vs 79.3% in the
nonseptic arthritis group, P=.349). Syno-
vial fluid lymphocyte, monocyte, and red
blood cell counts were not significantly
different in the 2 groups (P>.05).
In the group of patients with culture-
positive septic arthritis and a synovial flu-
id WBC count greater than 64,000 cells/
µL, the PMN cell percentage was slightly
higher than in patients with a synovial flu-
id WBC count less than 64,000 cells/µL;
this difference was not statistically signifi-
cant (93.8% vs 71%, respectively; P>.05).
Gram stain also was more likely to be
positive (10 of 12 vs 3 of 6, respectively;
P>.05). The serum WBC count tended to
be higher in patients with synovial fluid
WBC count greater than 64,000 cells/µL
compared with patients with synovial flu-
id WBC count less than 64,000 cells/µL;
however, this difference was not statisti-
cally significant (11.93 vs 8.631 cells/µL,
Table 2
Isolated Organisms
Organism
No. of
Cases
Staphylococcus aureus 5
MRSA 3
MSSA 2
Acinetobacter lwoffii 2
Klebsiella oxytoca 2
Staphylococcus epidermidis 1
Flavimonas oryzihabitans 1
Staphylococcus capitis
ureolyticus
1
Staphylococcus hominis 1
Streptococcus viridans 1
Escherichia coli 1
S aureus/E coli 1
Bacteria (unspecified) 1
Abbreviations: MRSA, methicillin-
resistant Staphylococcus aureus; MSSA,
methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus
aureus.
Table 3
Laboratory Values
Mean (Range)
Patient Factor Septic Arthritis Nonseptic Arthritis P
ESR, mm/h 94 (18-140) 82 (1-140) .2582
WBC count (serum), cells/µL 10.1 (0.35-22.7) 11.1 (1.9-36.3) .6149
WBC count (synovial fluid),
cells/µL
70,581 (350-220,000) 26,758 (1-307,000) .7288
Neutrophil 70.1% (4%-90%) 74.9% (5%-91%) .2984
Lymphocyte 17.7% (2%-72%) 15.9% (0.8%-52%) .4331
Temperature, °F 99.1 (97.5-102.8) 99.2 (96.3-104) .9686
Abbreviations: ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; WBC, white blood cell.
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5. JULY/AUGUST 2016 | Volume 39 • Number 4
n Feature Article
id WBC count greater than 64,000 cells/
µL was 2.8 (95% CI, 1.2-6.7). Although
this may represent a low sensitivity and
increase the chances of a false-negative
results, a value above this cutoff value
should be seen as indicative of a true septic
arthritis, whereas values below this cutoff
may represent a more mixed picture (Fig-
ure 1). Thus, the authors believe that if an
aspirate is obtained with a PMN cell count
above the cutoff value, no further studies
are necessary, and irrigation and debride-
ment should not be delayed. In contrast,
values below the cutoff value should place
increased impetus on the patient’s clinical
picture and the possible need for further
imaging or serologic studies to rule out
other causes of acute joint pain and thus
avoid unnecessary surgical morbidity in a
patient who may not have septic arthritis.
Several studies have shown sensitivity
of the synovial WBC count greater than
50,000 cells/µL ranges from 49% to 63%,
with a specificity of 88% to 92%.4,29,30
A
single-institution retrospective study by
Khan et al4
of 56 patients found that using
a lower synovial WBC count threshold
of 50,000 cells/µL yielded a sensitivity
of 58.9%. This study similarly observed
a wide range of synovial WBC counts
(range, 1620-230,000 cells/µL) in patients
with culture-positive septic arthritis. It
is possible that some of this variability,
particularly low synovial cell counts, can
be explained by aspirates early in the in-
fectious process, immunocompromised
patients, or partially treated infections.22
However, a high WBC count should not
be exclusively seen as being caused by
bacterial infection because inflammatory
processes such as rheumatoid arthritis,
gout, and pseudogout also can have mark-
edly elevated values.14
This variability
highlights the importance of further stud-
ies and particularly to improve microbio-
logic testing accuracy beyond the current
gold standard synovial fluid culture.
In the current study, the synovial cell
percentage of PMN cells was not statisti-
cally significant in comparing the septic
arthritis and nonseptic arthritis groups
(P>.05). In addition, the LR of septic
arthritis was 0.76 with 80% PMN cells
and 0.99 with 90% PMN cells. This con-
trasts with other studies that reported a
cell count of at least 90% suggests sep-
tic arthritis with an LR of 3.4 (95% CI,
2.8-4.2), whereas a PMN cell count less
than 90% lowers the likelihood (LR, 0.34;
95% CI, 0.25-0.47).6
It is unclear why the
percentage of PMN cells in the synovial
fluid analysis from the current study was
not significant. This may be due to the fact
that noninfectious inflammatory arthropa-
thies can cause an elevated PMN percent-
age in synovial fluid or that patients who
are immunosuppressed with septic arthri-
tis may not develop a sufficient immune
response.
This investigation showed that labora-
tory parameters (ESR, C-reactive protein,
and serum WBC count) and body temper-
Figure 3: Graph showing correlation of synovial cell count with Charlson Comorbidity Index (septic ar-
thritis cases).
Figure 4: Graph showing frequency distribution of the number of positive criteria in septic and nonseptic
arthritis patients; criteria were fever greater than 100.4°F, inability to bear weight, erythrocyte sedimenta-
tion rate greater than 40 mm/h, serum leukocyte count greater than 12 cells/mm3
, and absolute synovial
leukocyte count greater than 64,000 cells/µL.
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7. JULY/AUGUST 2016 | Volume 39 • Number 4
n Feature Article
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