症例 challenge · Infectious disease / Orthopedics / Emergency · teaching

Septic Arthritis — Management Pathway · case challenge

Given a case, work through the care pathway step by step; the tool checks each choice and scores you. Decisions and basis are taken from this site's reviewed care pathways.

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Case #1Infectious disease / Orthopedics / Emergency

📋 Case data

High suspicion?Synovial fluid supports / high clinical suspicion

Data is taken from this pathway's reviewed node text. Work through the pathway step by step.

Step 1 / 1 · High suspicion?

Acute hot swollen painful joint — does arthrocentesis support it?

💡 Acute mono/oligo-arthritis with redness, heat, swelling, restricted motion ± fever (systemic symptoms are insensitive). Staph aureus is most common (>80% of non-gonococcal); risk factors = prosthetic joint, pre-existing joint disease (RA), immunosuppression, IVDU, diabetes, recent procedure. Serology/imaging cannot exclude it — arthrocentesis is required.

For teaching. Decisions and their basis are taken from this site's reviewed care pathways; for licensed clinicians/trainees, this does not replace clinical judgment or local protocols.