Orthopaedic Infections In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Abstract
A 5-year-material of 27 patients with RA and simultaneous orthopaedic infections is described with regard to age, sex, aetiology, localisation and bacteriology. Staphylococcus aureus was the pathogenic bacterium in 22 of 27 cases and at first culture more than half of the cases were resistant to penicillin. It was not possible to demonstrate that patients with RA are more prone to have infections or more severe infections postoperatively than other orthopaedic patients. In the present material, haematogenous infections in patients with RA were not more common than in a “normal population”. Patients with RA have an increased frequency of bacterial arthritis and were responsible for about one-fourth of all cases of bacterial arthritis during the 5-year period. In none of the patients had the orthopaedic infection been fatal. Lars Lidgren Department of Orthopaedic Surgery University Hospital Lund Sweden