Artrite fungica: analise secundaria de dados / Fungal arthritis: secondary data analysis

RESUMO

Fungal arthritis has been increasing rapidly in recent years. It is ascribed to have augmented the number of immunocompromised patients, intravenous drug abusers, prematurity, corticosteroid therapy, and joint replacements. The absence of further related systematic reviews justified the aim of this study. It was performed by electronic data base searching approach to Medline, Embase and Lilacs, between 1966 and January of 2001. Data were analyzed and the results displayed with clinical features, therapeutic procedures and outcome associated with each etiologic agent. Of all cases, 152/345 (44.1 per cent) reported Candida sp. as the most common causative agent, and the knee was the most involved joint (65.5 per cent). Candida arthritis was strongly associated with prematurity, drug abuse and arthroplasty while Sporothrix arthritis was associated with alcoholism. The period from the beginning of symptoms to diagnosis was long (mean = 14.1 months) and the histological pattern showed low sensitivity to establish a diagnosis. Thus, some clinical device is required in order to decrease the time for diagnosis of fungal arthritis, that is, every articular sepsis or chronic arthritis suspicion must call for routine fungal research