Gomez-Junyent J, et al. - With an intent to gain insight into the mortality of patients with bacteremic osteoarticular infections (B-OAIs), researchers undertook this investigation, focusing particularly on questions such as whether certain types of OAIs carry higher mortality or interventions like surgical debridement can improve prognosis. Patients with peripheral septic arthritis had greater mortality. In addition, surgical debridement was found to be related to decreased mortality in cases of peripheral septic arthritis.

• Researchers retrospectively analyzed mortality (30-day case-fatality rate) in a prospective cohort of patients with B-OAIs treated at a teaching hospital in Barcelona (1985–2014).
• B-OAIs were categorized as peripheral septic arthritis or other OAIs.
• They used logistic regression models to analyze factors influencing mortality.
• Using a multivariate logistic regression model and a propensity score matching analysis, they assessed the association of surgical debridement with mortality in patients with peripheral septic arthritis.

• The reported mortality among 650 cases of B-OAIs was 12.2% (41.8% of deaths within 7 days).
• Researchers found that compared with other B-OAI, cases of peripheral septic arthritis were related to higher mortality (18.6% vs 8.3%, p<0.001).
• Data also revealed that peripheral septic arthritis was identified as an independent predictor of mortality in a multiple logistic regression model (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.12; 95% CI 1.22–3.69; p=0.008).
• They also noted that cases with peripheral septic arthritis managed with vs without surgical debridement had lower mortality (14.7% vs 33.3%; p=0.003).
• In addition, association of surgical debridement with reduced mortality was evident after adjusting for covariates (adjusted OR 0.23; 95%CI 0.09–0.57; p=0.002) and in the propensity score matching analysis (OR 0.81; 95%CI 0.68-0.96; p=0.014).