Septic and Aseptic Iliopsoas Bursitis - A Systematic Review of the Literature

Iliopsoas bursitis (IB) is a rare entity and usually presents with ambiguous clinical presentation similar to other musculoskeletal conditions in the anatomic area. In septic IB, patients usually present with vague complaints of hip pain and fever.To better understand this vague clinical entity, a systematic review of cases of iliopsoas bursitis published in the open literature was performed to better characterize the clinical presentation, demographics and clinical outcome in patients with IB. An analysis of 50 articles and 54 patients including our index case revealed that hip pain was the most common presenting complaint in 74% of the patients, followed by lower limb edema (16.7% of patients). Common etiologies were total hip arthroplasty (16.7%) and infection (14.8%). The mortality rate calculated in the reported cases of septic IB was high. Therefore, knowledge of this entity is important as delay in diagnosis and management, especially in septic IB, can result in fatal outcome.