3 CASES OF PYOGENIC SACRO-ILIITIS, AND FACTORS IN THE RELAPSE OF THE DISEASE

Pyogenic sacro-iliitis (PS) is a rare disease in childhood. Three case s of PS are reported that were difficult to diagnose. Scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were useful for diagnosis. One patie nt suffered from an episode of relapse. Seventeen other cases of PS we re reviewed in the literature to investigate the incidence of abnormal imaging findings and various factors in disease relapse. It was found that the incidence of abnormal findings by scintigraphy was significa ntly higher than that by computed tomography (P = 0.0057). The duratio n of intravenous antibiotic administration of the relapse group (14.7 +/- 4.7 days) was significantly shorter than that of the non-relapse g roup (24.3 +/- 10.7 days; P = 0.0376). The statistical analysis sugges ted that intravenous antibiotic administration is necessary at least f or 20 days to prevent a relapse of PS.