Reactive arthritis (ReA) following the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine; A case report.

Abstract

Introduction: The development of vaccination against COVID-19 infection was a promising step during the battle against this pandemic; however, some vaccines were associated with some complications starting with just flu-like symptoms up to anaphylaxis; of the reported complications is joints pain. Here, we report a case who developed reactive arthritis (ReA) after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Case presentation: A healthy 54 years old male with no previous history of any medical condition was presented with bilateral hand and bilateral knee pain after one week of receiving his first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Clinical examination revealed swelling, tenderness, and erythema over the right index metacarpophalangeal joint and the medial aspect of the right knee. Radiographs of the hand and knee were normal. Laboratory investigations were within normal values except for an elevated ESR (15 mm/hr.) and a positive CRP titer of 48 mg/l. The symptoms entirely resolved after two weeks of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Conclusions: Although rare, however, ReA could be presented as a complication of Covid-19 vaccination, and physicians should be aware of the possibility of its occurrence.

New-Onset Rheumatic Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases Following SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations until May 2023: A Systematic Review

“…Inflammatory Arthritis 3.7.1. Reactive Arthritis Out of 30 reactive arthritis (ReA) patients, the majority presented with oligoarthritis (17,56%) [121], followed by monoarthritis (7, 23%) [9,29,69,97,98,107,135], and polyarthritis (6,20%) [86,98,158,169]. Among the patients with monoarthritis, four had knee joints affected [9,97,98,135], two had elbow joints affected [69,107], and one had ankle joints affected [29].…”

“…However, eight patients had normal CRP [98,121], and no CRP was available for two patients [69,86]. A total of twenty-five patients received corticosteroids, two nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) [98], and three patients received a combination of NSAIDs and corticosteroids [69,97,158]. Of the twenty-eight patients who received corticosteroids, most received oral corticosteroids (twenty-two patients) [29,86,98,121,169], four received intraarticular (IA) corticosteroids [9,67,97,107], one received intramuscular corticosteroid (IM) [158], and one received IV corticosteroids.…”