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The standard of care for patients with septic arthritis has long been 3 to 6 weeks of antibiotics, usually following surgical drainage, but recommendations on duration of treatment and use of parenteral versus oral therapy have not been based on solid evidence. In this nonblinded study, Swiss investigators aimed to define the optimal duration and route of antibiotic therapy. They randomized 154 nonimmunocompromised patients with native-joint septic arthritis, including 99 patients with hand/wrist arthritis, to receive 2 or 4 weeks of antibiotics after surgical drainage, with a switch from intravenous to oral therapy at clinicians' discretion.
In an intent-to-treat analysis of the entire study population, complete microbiological cure occurre…