Bedside Aspiration for Workup of the Pediatric Septic Hip: Avoid Trips to the OR and Expedited Time to Diagnosis.

Abstract

Background: Septic arthritis of the hip is a pediatric orthopaedic emergency. Joint synovial fluid aspiration is a critical step of diagnosis, which may be delayed due to limited personnel or operating room (OR) availability. To expedite diagnosis, orthopaedic residents perform ultrasound-guided bedside arthrocentesis in the emergency department (ED). This study aims to evaluate the impact of this practice on time to diagnosis and definitive treatment of septic arthritis of the hip and minimizing trips to the operating room.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients presenting to our pediatric orthopaedic tertiary care emergency room requiring a hip aspiration to rule out septic arthritis between 2003 and 2023. We identified all patients who had resulted hip synovial fluid nucleated cell count during the above time period. Chart review was performed to determine how synovial fluid was collected via interventional radiology (IR), in the OR with an orthopaedic surgeon, or via bedside aspiration with the on-call resident. Clinical outcomes were primarily defined as time points in clinical care. Patient demographics, Kocher criteria values, time to aspiration, and final treatment are presented. Kruskal-Wallis and Fisher exact tests were used to compare demographic and clinical differences in RStudio using a two-sided level of significance of 0.05.

Results: Hip aspiration was performed in the workup of septic arthritis in 57 patients (median age 5.1 y; 58% female). Aspiration occurred in the ED for 28 patients, interventional radiology (IR) for 11, and in the OR for 18 patients. Bedside aspiration avoided a trip to the OR for 15 patients (54%). Median time to obtaining joint fluid was significantly shorter for patients undergoing bedside or IR-guided aspiration compared with OR aspiration (7.4 vs. 5.3 vs. 15.7 h, respectively; bedside vs. OR P=0.007, IR vs. OR P=0.013). Time from presentation to OR for open surgical debridement, total operative time, and the percentage of patients requiring open surgical debridement did not significantly differ between groups.

Discussion: Bedside aspiration decreases the time to diagnosis of septic arthritis and can prevent ~50% of children from going to the OR. This is beneficial for the patient as it may allow for earlier antibiotic administration, provide pain relief, and avoid possible complications of general anesthesia.

Level of evidence: Level III-retrospective chart review.