Increasing Detection of Kingella kingae in Osteoarticular Infections

Researchers retrospectively studied the incidence of osteoarticular infections (OAI), including acute hematogenous osteomyelitis and septic arthritis, in children at a single Swiss medical center before (1997–2006) and after (2007–2016) nucleic acid amplification assays were used in diagnosis. The analysis included 369 patients, aged 15 days to 15.7 years

In the earlier decade, the mean annual incidence of OAI was 18 cases per 100,000 children and the mean age at diagnosis was 72 months. Conventional microbiological methods were used to isolate pathogens from 76 of 129 children (59%). Pathogens were recovered from 26% of blood samples and 59% of bone or joint fluid samples. The primary pathogens isolated were gram-positive organisms, includi…