Kingella kingae Osteoarthritis and Osteomyelitis in Children

Kingella kingae infections in children

“…The mean WCC and ESR were 12.3 × 10 9 /L and 43 mm/h, respectively. The bones affected were the femur in nine, 6,11,15,21,22,24,27–29 the calcaneus in five, 15,30 the tibia in three, 3,24,28–30 the humerus in two, 14,16 and one each of the sternum, 6 ulna, 31 talus, 11 radius, 32 and clavicle. 33 In five cases, the epiphysis of the bone involved was affected – an unusual location for osteomyelitis in children.…”

Kingella kingae: Carriage, Transmission, and Disease

“…Kingella kingae spondylodiscitis generally involves a single intervertebral disk (213), usually at the lumbar spine level and, with decreasing frequency, the thoracolumbar, thoracic, lumbosacral, and cervical spaces (7,20,207,209,(214)(215)(216)(217)(218). Patients with this syndrome show gait disturbances, refuse to sit or walk, or complain of back pain.…”

“…The interest in K. kingae was initially limited (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), and only 55 reports on the organism were published in the medical literature until 1990. The number, however, has sharply increased in recent years, jumping to 105 in the following decade and 83 in the short period from January 2010 through August 2014 (determined by a PubMed search with "Kingella kingae" and "Moraxella kingii"), and has firmly established the status of K. kingae as a common agent of bacteremia with no focus (also called occult bacteremia) (11,12) and the predominant etiology of joint and bone infections in 6-to 36-month-old children (13)(14)(15)(16).…”

Kingella kingae intervertebral disk infection

“…Although K. kingae is susceptible to most of the antibiotics commonly used for treatment of disk infection, the organism is usually resistant to clindamycin. In addition, our strain was resistant to vancomycin, and two other strains (5,14) were resistant to oxacillin. Both clindamycin and oxacillin are commonly used for empiric therapy of bone or joint infection presumed to be caused by S. aureus.…”