Bones and joints infections of children in a hospital in Burkina Faso: a review of 120 cases

Abstract

To describe epidemiological, clinical, biological, therapeutical features and outcome of child osteoarticular infections in our institution.

A retrospective review of the medical record of ail children less than 15 years old hospitalized in Sourô Sanou teaching hospital between january 2005 and december 2009 for bone or joint infection.

120 patients (59.16% males), 18 days to 14 years of age met the inclusion criteria. Their mean age was 8.2 years. There was 58.3% of osteomyelitis which occurred after 06 years old in 77% of cases. The mean duration of symptoms before admission to hospital was 10 days in acute osteomyelitis, 6.9 months in chronic osteomyelitis and 7.7 days in arthritis. The lower limbs are the most involved. An abnorrnality of hemoglobin was found in 44.6% of patients. The most causative organism was Staphylococcus (42.5%). Initially intravenous antibiotic was administered for 1-3 weeks. The follow-up of the patients was difficult. Our data indicate that chronic osteomyelitis is the most frequent of bone and joint infections in children in our hospital. There is a need for an early diagnosis and a better treatment of theses infectious diseases in our practice.