The effect of antibiotic timing on culture yield in paediatric osteoarticular infection

Abstract

Purpose To assess the influence of antibiotic timing on surgical culture yield in paediatric patients with haematogenous osteoarticular infection. Methods All patients aged 0 to 15 years admitted to a National Children’s Hospital with the diagnosis of acute, haematogenous, osteoarticular infection (osteomyelitis and/or septic arthritis) between June 1997 and December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Only patients with positive blood cultures undergoing surgery for culture and debridement were included. Patients were allocated into pre-treatment and post-treatment groups, according to whether they received antibiotics before or after surgical cultures were obtained. Outcomes measured included baseline variables, treatment characteristics and surgical culture yield. Results A total of 131 patients were included; 107 patients in the pre-treatment group and 24 patients in the post-treatment group. There was no significant difference with respect to patient age (p = 0.870), white blood cell count (p = 0.197), ethnicity (p = 0.203) or infection multi-focality (p = 0.883) between the two groups. The administration of systemic antibiotics prior to obtaining surgical cultures had no clinically significant effect on surgical culture yield (rate of positive surgical cultures, 85% (pre-treatment) versus 54.2% (post-treatment); p = 0.002). Within the pre-treatment group, there was no significant difference in duration of pre-surgical antibiotic treatment between patients who had positive or negative surgical cultures (mean duration, 45.9 hours (positive cultures) versus 47.9 hours (negative cultures); p = 0.743). Conclusion In paediatric patients with acute, haematogenous, osteoarticular infection, antibiotic administration before surgery does not decrease surgical culture yield. Our results suggest that paediatric patients presenting with suspected osteoarticular infection should receive appropriate systemic antibiotics promptly after blood cultures are obtained.