Musculoskeletal Infection

Musculoskeletal (MSK) infection, chiefly septic arthritis (infection within a joint) and osteomyelitis (infection of bone), must never be missed.

Septic arthritis and acute severe MSK infection are emergencies, because a septic joint can be destroyed within days. Chronic osteomyelitis may still need urgent specialist care without being an immediate emergency.

It matters in sport because an acutely hot, swollen, painful joint can follow, or be mistaken for, an injury, and because joint injections carry a small risk of introducing infection. The SEM clinician's job is not definitive treatment but making sure infection is not missed: treat the hot swollen joint as septic arthritis until proven otherwise, and refer urgently for aspiration and specialist care.