A Case of Bilateral Suppurative Arthritis of Hip Joint with Concomitant Pyomyositis

Hip pain in a child is a common presentation and may pose a diagnostic challenge. Septic arthritis, transient synovitis, Perthes disease, and slipped capital femoral ephiphysis are the most important causes of hip pain among the children aged 3-10 years (1). Fracture, inflammatory arthropathy and tumors are other causes of hip irritability. Diagnosis of pyomyositis involving muscles around the hip may be problematic because of its rarity, its indolent presentation, and the similarity of its clinical features with those of septic arthritis. The differential diagnosis can be made on the basis of the history, physical examination and imaging studies. The problem often left to the clinician is to choose between septic arthritis and transient synovitis, the two most probable etiologies (2).