Mumps Arthritis

MIGRATORY polyarthritis as a complication of mumps is a rare entity which is merely mentioned in textbooks and described in detail only in the adult medical and foreign literature.1-4We know that acute rheumatic fever may be a frequently over-diagnosed disease,5 and that therefore many children are unnecessarily subjected to a long-term program of antibiotic prophylaxis which may be expensive, inconvenient, and frequently psychologically damaging. The arthritis observed in mumps is self-limited and resolves completely without any residual joint damage or recurrence. Its importance to pediatricians lies in differentiating this entity from the polyarthritis of acute rheumatic fever.Despite its application to pediatrics, the association of mumps and arthritis has not been described in the pediatric literature. This can probably be explained by the fact that the great majority of the 19 cases reported in detail have occurred in adults.The following report illustrates the association of arthritis