Improved Microbial Detection and Identification in Pediatric Bone and Joint Infections

Investigators from Seoul National University Children’s Hospital, Seoul, South Korea, and Jeju National University Hospital, Jeju, South Korea, conducted a prospective study comparing a methodology using blood culture bottles (BCB system) to collect samples in children with osteoarticular infections to traditional methods of collecting samples (swabs and tissue samples). Study participants were patients <18 years old with osteomyelitis and/or septic arthritis who underwent a surgical procedure at a single center between 2016 and 2019. At the time of surgery, 4 needles of 15-to-30–mm length were dipped into the wound, then inserted into the top of 4 pediatric blood culture bottles (2 aerobic and 2 anaerobic). Following this, 2 swab samples of the wound and …