Simple tests for septic bursitis: comparative study.

Differentiating septic from non-septic bursitis of the olecranon and prepatellar bursae is a common and important problem. Though septic cases may be identified clinically, laboratory tests have also been used. 2 However these tests are either not widely available or inadequately sensitive. We assessed two new tests that can be performed by most clinical laboratories: estimation of cell counts in a sample of EDTA anticoagulated bursal fluid and inoculation of the fluid into liquid media.