The distinguishing diagnosis between the septic arthritis and the transitory synovitis of a hip is not easy to be carried through; therefore, there is not a simple, nor sensible and satisfactorily specific examination to differentiate them. Thus, the use of a propedeutic set of examinations becomes necessary to demand greater cost and depend on a bigger infrastructure of the health institution. First of all, the necessity of a multifactorial analysis on a flowchart is evident, so it can rationalize the indication of unnecessary or more invasive procedures as artrocentesis, magnetic resonance and the surgical draining. A revision of literature on the databases of Pubmed and Cochrane until May of 2009 was carried through, and the importance of the clinical examination, laboratorial tests and imaging exams was analyzed. By studies on the data, it was elaborated a flowchart for the diagnosis and the conduction of the management on the patient, between the ages of six months and eighteen years old, with complaint of pain on the hip under suspicion of inflammatory picture. Level of Evidence: Level III, diagnostic studies - investigating a diagnostic test.
Arthritis; Hip; Child; Synovitis
