Abstract

Background: Timely diagnosis and treatment of pediatric osteoar-ticular infections (OAI) are imperative to avoid complications and sequelae, being relevant to know the local microbiology. Aim: To describe the characteristics of pediatric OAI treated in our center. Methods: Descriptive observational study. Patients under 15 years of age treated for OAI between 2004 and 2020 were analyzed. Clinical, laboratory, microbiology and treatment characteristics were evaluated. Results: 126 patients (63.5% men) were included, median age of 5.09 years (range: 0.5-14.6 years); 61.1% had septic arthritis (AS), 38.9% osteomyelitis (OM). Pain was present in 92.9% and fever in 68.3%. The most frequent location in AS was the knee (33.7%) and in OM the tibia (30.6%) and femur (30.6%). Agents were identified in 77 patients (61.1%), the most frequent being Staphylococcus aureus (n = 44), Kingella kingae (n = 13) and Streptococcus pyogenes (n = 8). The 4 patients with positive universal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for K. kingae were not detected by other methods. Conclusion: The most frequent agent continues to be S. aureus, with an increase in its resistance, and this is the first report of K. kingae as a cause of OAI in Chile, specifically related to the use of molecular techniques.