Observational studyThe Pediatric infectious disease journal2026
Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Culture-positive Versus Culture-negative Bone and Joint Infections in Pediatric Patients: A 10-Year Multicenter Study From Hungary.
Observational study in The Pediatric infectious disease journal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite advancements, a proportion of pediatric bone and joint infections remain culture negative, complicating diagnosis and therapy. This study aimed to compare characteristics and outcomes of culture-negative versus culture-positive infections in a pediatric cohort over a 10-year period.
methodsA retrospective, multicenter observational study was conducted across 6 tertiary care centers in Hungary between 2015 and 2024, including hospitalized children with primary hematogenous osteomyelitis or septic arthritis within 2 months of symptom onset. The primary outcome was the requirement for surgical intervention within 30 days of diagnosis; secondary outcomes included the incidence of short-term (at 30 days) and long-term complications (at follow-up end). Postdischarge follow-up continued until the last documented hospitalization or outpatient visit.
resultsNinety-seven patients were included. Osteomyelitis, arthritis and combined infection were diagnosed in 49.5%, 28.9% and 21.6% of cases, respectively. A pathogen was identified in 72.5% of patients, most frequently via intraoperative cultures (74.2%) and blood cultures (53.6%). Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant pathogen (71.2%), followed by Streptococcus pyogenes (11.9%) and Salmonella spp. (6.8%). Within 30 days of diagnosis, the culture-positive group exhibited a significantly higher rate of surgical intervention, compared to the culture-negative group (79.7% vs. 34.2%, P = 0.001). Short-term complications were also more frequent in culture-positive cases (64.4% vs. 42.1%, P = 0.031). No difference was observed in long-term complication rates between groups.
conclusionsIn pediatric patients, culture-positive bone and joint infections are associated with a more severe short-term clinical course and an increased likelihood of surgical intervention, particularly when S. aureus is the causative agent.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.