Differentiating between a transient synovitis (irritable hip) and septic arthritis of the hip is a common but difficult task faced by emergency physicians and paediatricians on a daily basis. There have been a number of major studies looking at clinical predictors that can be used to differentiate between the two above conditions. While no single clinical predictor alone can either confirm or exclude a diagnosis of septic arthritis, the more predictors that are present, the more like it is that the child has septic arthritis.
By entering which of the clinical predictors for septic arthritis are present in a given child this calculator combines the evidence from the major studies in this area to provide the user with the likelihood (expressed as a percentage) that the child has a septic hip.