Arthroscopic treatment of septic arthritis in a patient with posterior stabilized total knee arthroplasty

We report on a case of arthroscopic treatment of septic arthritis of the knee in a 73-year-old woman with a posterior stabilized knee endoprosthesis. Six months after arthroplasty of the right knee joint because of osteoarthritis, the patient experienced an erysipelas of the right lower leg after a cat bite. Although given intravenous antibiotic therapy, the patient developed septic arthritis of the right knee. Pasteurella multocida could be identified as the causative organism. The joint infection was classified as stage I according to Gachter. Via arthroscopic joint debridement, partial synovialectomy, the use of continuous irrigation-suction drains, and intravenous antibiotic therapy, the empyema could be cured without removal of the total endoprosthesis of the right knee.