Septic arthritis in adult patients in a general hospital in ChileBackground: Septic arthritis is an infrequent condition of prolonged morbidity and there is no previous publications in Chile that allow orientate therapy.Aim: To characterize a group of adult patients with septic arthritis confirmed by culture.Material and Methods: Descriptive study of a case series.Results: From 2003 to august 2013, 24 patients with 25 events of septic arthritis were identified in a general hospital.Mean age was 68.3 years old (range 24-94).Predisposing conditions were harbored by 91.7%.Predominant clinical manifestations were pain (92%) and impaired joint movement (95.7%).Fever was present in 64%, hypotension in 28% of events, and C-reactive protein > 100 mg/L in 90.6%.Gram positive cocci were the most frequently isolated microorganisms (81.5%), predominating S. aureus (48.1%), and with 4 isolates methicillin resistant isolates (26.7%).Resistant isolates trend to be associated with previous surgery (p = 0.055) and all cases caused by non-fermentative Gram negative bacilli had recent hospitalization or surgery, a feature that did not reach a significant difference.Nine events were associated to bacteremia (36%).Outcome analysis indicated 32% of events with full recovery, 28% with a favorable evolution, 20% with therapy failure and 16.7% patients that died.A total of 24% of the series remained with significant sequels.Conclusions: Septic arthritis is an infrequent disease that affects in most cases patients with predisposing conditions.Associated symptoms include pain and impaired joint movement, sometimes fever, hypotension, positive blood cultures and frequently a C-reactive protein > 100 mg/L.Predominant agents are Gram positive cocci, specially S. aureus, including methicillin resistant isolates.Case-fatality ratio, treatment failure and sequels are important.