Listeria monocytogenes septic arthritis. A case report and review of the literature.

Septic arthritis is a relatively uncommon manifestation of listeriosis. Only four documented cases of Listeria arthritis have been reported in the medical literature. We now present a fifth case associated with Listeria peritonitis and briefly review the clinical spectrum of articular listeriosis. These cases suggest that (1) the early diagnoses of Listeria peritonitis and arthritis require a high degree of clinical suspicion, and (2) a cephalosporin should not be used as the sole antibiotic in cases of septic arthritis and peritonitis in which the causative organism has not been identified.