What is osteomyelitis?

Osteomyelitis is an infection in a bone. Infections can reach a bone by traveling through the bloodstream or spreading from nearby tissue. Infections can also begin in the bone itself if an injury exposes the bone to germs.

What is the prognosis of osteomyelitis?

With proper treatment, the outcome is usually good for osteomyelitis, although results tend to be worse for chronic osteomyelitis, even with surgery. Some cases of chronic osteomyelitis can be so resistant to treatment that amputation may be required; however, this is rare.

How does osteomyelitis affect children?

In children, osteomyelitis usually affects the adjacent ends of long bones. Long bones (bones in the arms or legs) are large, dense bones that provide strength, structure and mobility.

What’s new in osteomyelitis?

A better understanding of the pathophysiology has led to the development of new therapeutic strategies for this devastating disease. A remarkable advancement in treatment of osteomyelitis is the local delivery of antibiotics, which improves therapeutic outcomes and minimizes the side effects of systemic administration of high-dose antibiotics.

Osteomyelitis is a bacterial, or fungal, infection of the bone. Osteomyelitis affects about 2 out of every 10,000 people.

What is the gold standard for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis?

The gold standard for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis is bone biopsy with histopathologic examination and tissue culture. When the patient is clinically stable, one should consider delaying empiric antimicrobial treatment until bone biopsy is performed.

Can osteomyelitis cause skin cancer?

Skin cancer. If your osteomyelitis has resulted in an open sore that is draining pus, the surrounding skin is at higher risk of developing squamous cell cancer. If you’ve been told that you have an increased risk of infection, talk to your doctor about ways to prevent infections from occurring.