Is is possible for arthritis to be caused by a injury that caused a bacterial infection?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 at
2:36 am
My husband had a knife barely nip his knee while at work and within hours it caused a really bad bacterial infection and was treated with anitibiotics. He was very healthy until the injury and week after the accident he started to have pain in the are where he was injured and it is slowly spreading throughout his body. He has been consulting with a Specialist however I want to make sure this is not work related.
He has been seeing a Rhemotologist however my concern is that this was caused by the injury as he was very much healthy prior to the injury.
Filed under: Bacterial Vaginosis
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yes, it is possible to have arthritis after a joint (knee) infection. it is called septic arthritis where the infection and the inflammatory process that comes along with it destoy the cartilage (arthritis is loss of cartilage).
however, in your husband’s case, it would be farily unlikely. the initial knife injury has to be fairly deep, so it would enter the knee joint (not just cutting some superficial tissue). but…if the infection in the superficial tissue got very very bad, it can potentially enter the knee joint and create a septic joint.
a septic joint/knee is very painful and painful to move. and for the most part would require surgical treatment as antibiotics, even IV, just don’t get into the joint that well. most doctors, even non orthopedists, should be able to recognize it easily.
i suppose that the infection could have been blood borne and started to seed multiple joints; but again less likely and he would have gotten pretty sick (septic).
therefore…when multiple joints are involved, we get the rheumatologist involved. there is wide spectrum to rheumatological processes and many of them can cause multiple joint pain.
good luck
Has a staph (MRSA) infection been mentioned? Some information on arthritis is below – there are many, many kinds and I’d recommend seeing a rheumatologist:
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/arthritis-basics.html
Good luck : )
this is not arthritis,, this is an infection from the knife injury that has gotten into the blood and now the whole body is fight off the infection..he needs a good strong anti biotic and i would class this a definetly work related as the knife injury happened at work..