Alenka Koren
Zdravstveni dom dr. Adolfa Drolca Maribor Ulica talcev 9, 2000 Maribor, Slovenija

Matej Pal
Zdravstveni dom dr. Adolfa Drolca Maribor, Maribor, Slovenija

Brigita Koren
Klinika za pediatrijo, Univerzitetni klinični center Maribor, Maribor, Slovenija

Abstract

The paper presents a clinical case of a 21-month-old boy, who was admitted to Paediatric Clinic University Clinical Centre Maribor with a left hip effusion of three weeks‘ duration. The child was initially treated by orthopaedics for transient synovitis of hip, which during hospitalisation turned out to be septic arthritis. we did a magnetic reso­nance imaging of the affected joint and later a puncture of the synovial fluid. with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) we detected Kingella kingae in the joint fluid, which is the most common cause of septic arthritis and osteomyelitis in chil­dren aged from 6 to 36 months. The boy made a complete recovery after 21 days of beta-lactam antibiotic treatment. Apart from presenting a case of septic arthritis in a child, we also emphasize the peculiarities of the pathogen Kingella kingae in clinical recognition and microbiological detection.

Key words: septic arthritis, Kingella kingae, diagnosis, treatment