Original articleGeneral thoracicSternoclavicular Joint Infection: A Comparison of Two Surgical Approaches
Section snippets
Data Acquisition
We queried a prospectively maintained institutional cardiothoracic surgical database with the following key phrases: sternoclavicular infection, sternoclavicular septic arthritis, clavicular infection/osteomyelitis. All the cases were from a single institution. The study was reviewed by the institutional review board and exempted. Patient records from 2002 through 2009 were reviewed. Case records were individually reviewed, and only patients with SCJ septic arthritis were included. Patients who
Results
Twenty patients (10 women, 10 men) with a mean age of 56.5 years underwent a total of 35 operations for SCJI from 2002 to 2009. Pain (17 of 20 patients; 85%) and swelling (19 of 20 patients; 95%) were the main presenting symptoms. A minority of patients (7 of 20 patients; 35%) had documented fever before admission. Two of twenty (10%) patients were taking immunosuppressive medications, and another 7 of 20 patients (35%) were diabetic. Thirteen of twenty patients (65%) had a discernible focus of
Comment
The true incidence of SCJI is not known, but it is likely to be low, as reported in a review published in 2004 summarizing a total of 180 cases in the literature [1]. Similarly, the fraction of patients requiring an operation for SCJI is unclear. In the review by Ross and Shamsuddin [1], 102 of 174 patients (58%) underwent an operation, but this is likely to be an overestimate when applied to the general population as it is more likely that patients undergoing an operation are reported in the
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