Septic arthritis is a potential catastrophic complication of intra-articular steroid injection. There is lack of evidence regarding the precautions that should be taken to avoid such a complication, as well as how often it is encountered. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiseptic precautions taken during intra-articular steroid injection of the knee in the United Kingdom (UK), and estimate how often septic arthritis is encountered by health professionals in the UK following steroid injection of the knee. A questionnaire was posted to 100 orthopaedic surgeons, 100 rheumatologists and 50 general practitioners (GPs), asking them about the cases of septic arthritis following intra-articular steroid injection of the knee that they encountered during their practice and the precautions they take when injecting knees. The response rate was 76.4%; 57.6% of the respondents used alcohol swabs to clean the skin, and the remaining 42.4% used chlorhexidine or Betadine. Only 16.3% used sterile towels to isolate the injection site. There were 32.5% of respondents who routinely used sterile gloves when injecting, and a total of 46.6% used either sterile or non-sterile gloves. Also, 91.1% changed needles between drawing the steroid and injecting it into the joint. Only 24 respondents (12.6%) had encountered septic arthritis after steroid injection of the knee (18 once, 3 twice, 2 three times, 1 several times). We concluded that septic arthritis post intra-articular steroid injection of the knee is probably rare. There is a wide variation in the precautions taken to avoid such a complication. However, the trend seems to be towards minimal use of antiseptic techniques. Further large prospective studies are needed to determine how frequently septic arthritis of the knee is encountered post steroid injection, and the exact precautions that should be taken to avoid it.

We present the results of a prospective randomized trial comparing the treatment of ganglia by aspiration under local anaesthetic and either instillation of steroid alone or with the prior use of hyaluronidase. Thirty-five patients were treated in each group and followed up for 2 years. The cure rate with the combined use of hyaluronidase and methylprednisolone was 89%, compared to 57% when treated by aspiration and instillation of methylprednisolone alone.

Summary: Thin films of plasma‐polymerized allylamine (PPAA) have been deposited onto polyethylene powders (PE) and polystyrene (PS) beads by using a low‐pressure 13.56 MHz plasma in a fluidized bed reactor. Chemical derivatization using a set of three different blocking agents has allowed quantitative measurement of the relative percentages of primary, secondary, and tertiary amines. Under optimized conditions, it is possible to incorporate up to 110 nmol of amine groups per gram of powder and with a selectivity of 75% for primary amines. Moreover, our data clearly show that for films deposited at 10 W the selectivity for primary amines is at a maximum, but this is at the expense of resistance to washing. A power of 20 W corresponds to an optimum value since both the amount of primary amines and the degree of resistance of the coating to solvents reach maximum values.

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