Without DMARDs, inflammation would destroy joint tissue to the point where it become misshapen and unusable. Furthermore, there are many possible side effects with the use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, glucocorticoids, and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) inhibitors can be an additional risk factor for the development of septic arthritis. Glucocorticoids can also lead to a rapid bone loss and osteoporosis, and may mask infection if used prior to the killing of bacteria. In this case, the patient had already started to show severe destructive changes and did not respond to the cocktail of drugs …show more content…
This is the most common cause of infectious (septic) arthritis, and studies have shown that as much as 80% of infected joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, are caused by Straphyloccocus aureus. S aureus, a gram positive coccus, is a bacteria that commonly lives on the skin or in the nose. While it causes no problems in healthy people, the risk of infection increase when immunosuppressive agents are used, which can cause acute bacterial arthritis. The most common source of infection is through the skin, which accounted for 76% of the cases where a source could be identified. Rheumatoid nodules or ulcerated calluses of the rheumatoid patient was the most common. Other common routes of spread include respiratory and urinary tract infection, local tissue infection, penetrating trauma, and