Pseudoseptic Arthritis: A Case Series and Review of the Literature

• Main Authors: Brian P. Oppermann, Jonida K. Cote, Stephanie J. Morris, Thomas Harrington
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2011-01-01
• Series: Case Reports in Infectious Diseases
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/942023

Purpose. Pseudoseptic arthritis is an acute inflammatory monoarthritis with a sterile synovial gram stain and culture. Pseudoseptic arthritis has been previously described in the literature in a variety of settings including rheumatoid arthritis and microcrystalline disease. Despite pseudoseptic arthritis being a described entity, there is little published data on this topic with no published reports since 1992. Methods. This paper was a retrospective chart review over a 20-year period that identified all rheumatology inpatient consultations at our tertiary rural hospital for pseudoseptic arthritis. Results. We identified 10 patients with pseudoseptic arthritis and presented 5 of those cases in this paper. Majority of these patients had known autoimmune inflammatory arthritis or microcrystalline inflammatory arthritis. Conclusion. Pseudoseptic arthritis is a syndrome that should be in the differential diagnosis with patients with long standing inflammatory condition who present with an acute monoarthritis with no known bacterial source for septic arthritis.