Kingella kingae Osteoarticular Infections Approached through the Prism of the Pediatric Orthopedist

Abstract

Nowadays, Kingella kingae (K. kingae) is considered as the main bacterial cause of osteoarticular infections (OAI) in children aged less than 48 months. Next to classical acute hematogenous osteomyelitis and septic arthritis, invasive K. kingae infections can also give rise to atypical osteoarticular infections, such as cellulitis, pyomyositis, bursitis, or tendon sheath infections. Clinically, K. kingae OAI are usually characterized by a mild clinical presentation and by a modest biologic inflammatory response to infection. Most of the time, children with skeletal system infections due to K. kingae would not require invasive surgical procedures, except maybe for excluding pyogenic germs’ implication. In addition, K. kingae’s OAI respond well even to short antibiotics treatments, and, therefore, the management of these infections requires only short hospitalization, and most of the patients can then be treated safely as outpatients.