Primary Meningococcal Polyarthritis in an Adult Woman

Abstract

Primary joint infection caused by the Gram-negative bacteria Neisseria meningitidis is rare. Normally, joint involvement comes secondary to meningitis or severe sepsis caused by this agent. When primary arthritis is seen, monoarthritis is the most common presentation. A meningococcal polyarthritis is described in less than 10 case reports according to current literature. This case report aims to briefly review this rare clinical event in an adult woman with no previous history of rheumatological disease. Early diagnosis of polyarthritis caused by meningococcal bacteria usually present a good prognosis when properly treated.

Primary septic arthritis of the knee caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B in an elderly patient. Case report and review of the literature

“…The most frequently involved joint (alone or together with others) in literature is the knee (62.5%) [17, 18, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37-40, 42-48, 50, 51]. Although the direct bacterial invasion of the synovium via the bloodstream is the proposed pathogenetic mechanism for PMA, only 17.5% of the patients had a positive blood culture [26,32,36,39,45,48]. This could be in part explained by the early start of antibiotic treatment, before obtaining a sample of synovial uid; however, in our case, all blood cultures turned negative despite being collected before antibiotic treatment and during fever.…”

Meningococcal arthritis and myopericarditis: a case report

“…Presentation of PMA may be very similar to that of other forms of septic arthritis [ 12 ]. It is most commonly monoarticular [ 15 ], with the knee the most commonly involved joint [ 12 , 14 , 16 ], but can also be oligoarticular or polyarticular [ 12 , 16 ]. Causative serotypes are group B, 30–38%; group C, 33–36%; and group W-135, 13–29% [ 15 , 17 ].…”