Occurrence of Rare Pathogens at the Site of Periprosthetic Hip and Knee Joint Infections: A Retrospective, Single-Center Study.

The frequency and clinical relevance of rare pathogens at the site of periprosthetic infections of the hip and knee joint and their antibiotic resistance profiles have not yet been assessed in-depth. We retrospectively analyzed all periprosthetic hip and knee joint infections that occurred between 2016 and 2020 in a single center in southwest Germany. Among 165 infections, 9.7% were caused by rare microorganisms such as Veilonella sp., Pasteurella sp., Pantoea sp., Citrobacter koseri, Serratia marcescens, Parvimonas micra, Clostridium difficile, Finegoldia magna, Morganella morganii, and yeasts. No resistance to piperacillin/tazobactam, carbapenemes, fluoroquinolones, or gentamicin was observed. Some bacteria displayed resistance to ampicillin, ampicillin/sulbactam, and cefuroxime. We present follow-up data of patients with infections due to rare pathogens and discuss the importance of close, interdisciplinary collaboration between orthopedic surgeons and clinical microbiologists to carefully select the most appropriate anti-infective treatment regimens for the increasing number of patients with such infections.

Disseminated coccidioidomycosis: Monitoring of serologic markers for treatment response.

We describe a patient with a disseminated coccidioidomycosis. Biomarkers in serum during itraconazole therapy showed a rapid clearing of Coccidioides DNA as detected by PCR. Coccidioides antibody detection by lateral flow assay became negative after one year and decreased from 1:64 to 1:8 in the complement fixation test after two years. The (1 â†’ 3)-ß-D-glucan levels normalised after two years without increase after cessation of antifungal therapy. Biomarkers in serum may guide treatment decisions in disseminated coccidioidomycosis.

Pathogenic organisms in hip joint infections.

Infections of the hip joint are usually of bacterial etiology. Only rarely, an infectious arthritis is caused in this localization by viruses or fungi. Native joint infections of the hip are less common than infections after implantation of prosthetic devices. Difficulties in prosthetic joint infections are, (I) a higher age of patients, and, thus an associated presence of other medical risk factors, (II) often long courses of treatment regimes depending on the bacterium and its antibiotic resistance, (III) an increased mortality, and (IV) a high economic burden for removal and reimplantation of an infected prosthetic device. The pathogenic mechanisms responsible for articular infections are well studied only for some bacteria, e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, while others are only partially understood. Important known bacterial properties and microbiological characteristics of infection are the bacterial adhesion on the native joint or prosthetic material, the bacterial biofilm formation, the development of small colony variants (SCV) as sessile bacterial types and the increasing resistance to antibiotics.