Acute septic arthritis: open drainage versus needle aspiration

ABSTRACT

This study aimsto compare the effectiveness of open drainage with needle aspiration in acute septic arthritis in our local population. Randomized controlled trial. This study was conducted in Orthopedics and Trauma unit, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar from Feb 2009 to Jan 2010. There a total of 114 patients that were randomly assigned to group A and B with 57 patients in each group. Group A was subjected to open drainage and Group B to needle aspiration. The effectiveness of intervention was assessed by the reduction of at least one grade of pain from the baseline on 7[th] post-operative day. In group A 26 [45.61%] and 31 [54.38%] patients had Grade 2 and Grade 3 pain respectively whereas in group B 28[49.12%] and 29[50.88%] patients had Grade 2 and Grade 3 pain respectively[p value 0.0025].Open drainage and needle aspiration in group A and B were effective in 49 [85.96%] and 39[68.42%] patients respectively [p value 0.0025]. Open drainage is more effective than needle aspiration in patients with acute septic arthritis