Varicella arthritis in childhood: a case report and review of the literature

Nonbacterial arthritis is a rare but well-recognized complication of acute varicella in children. Reported cases usually described monoarthritis of the knee that occurs at the onset of the rash or shortly after. Herein, we describe a case of arthritis of the hip that occurred in a 4-year-old girl 6 days before the onset of rash. The presence of varicella-zoster virus DNA in synovial fluid was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. A review of the literature reported 26 previous cases of aseptic arthritis due to varicella infection among children.