[A case of pneumococcal arthritis in a patient with gout]

A 62 year-old man had suffered from gout and mild renal insufficiency since he was 40 years old. He was admitted to our hospital complicated by a productive cough, high fever and a right swollen knee joint. The chest radiographs demonstrated a left upper lobe infiltration shadow. Streptococci pneumoniae were found in the sputum, arterial blood and synovial fluid of the right knee joint, suggesting a severe pneumonia followed by pneumococcal septicemia which led to purulent arthritis. He was treated with cefamandole (CMD) and penicillin G (PC-G) for one week, but the chest X-ray findings were not improved. After treatment with cefbuperazone (CBPZ) and latamoxef (LMOX), his fever and other symptoms gradually resolved. Streptococcus pneumoniae is an uncommon organism of septic arthritis. Pneumococcal arthritis in a patient without immunodeficiency such as this case is very rare, and has not been reported in Japan.