The Limping Child

Key points

• • Urgently assess for septic arthritis - fever, refusal to move the joint, raised inflammatory markers; the Kocher criteria help estimate risk rather than definitively exclude it.
• • Toddler: transient synovitis (post-viral), a toddler's fracture, or developmental hip dysplasia.
• • Child 4-10: transient synovitis and Perthes disease; adolescent: slipped upper femoral epiphysis.
• • A limping child with fever needs urgent assessment for septic arthritis and other serious causes such as osteomyelitis.