Osteomyelitis surgery

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Seyedmahdi Pahlavani, M.D. [2]

Overview

Osteomyelitis may require surgical debridement. Severe cases may lead to the loss of a limb.

There is a wide range of techniques and methods for less aggressive debridement and reconstruction surgery.^[1]
The goal is to remove sequestra and infected tissues, followed by reconstruction or plastic surgery to save the skeletal structure.^[2]
Limb amputation is another option if the infection is so severe that the limb cannot be salvaged by the surgeon.^[3]
Patients with other co-morbidities such as diabetes or peripheral vascular diseases stand a higher risk of limb amputation.^[2]

↑ Game FL, Jeffcoate WJ (2008). “Primarily non-surgical management of osteomyelitis of the foot in diabetes”. Diabetologia. 51 (6): 962–7. doi:10.1007/s00125-008-0976-1. PMID 18385975.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Parsons B, Strauss E (2004). “Surgical management of chronic osteomyelitis”. Am. J. Surg. 188 (1A Suppl): 57–66. doi:10.1016/S0002-9610(03)00292-7. PMID 15223504.
↑ Berendt AR, Peters EJ, Bakker K, Embil JM, Eneroth M, Hinchliffe RJ, Jeffcoate WJ, Lipsky BA, Senneville E, Teh J, Valk GD (2008). “Diabetic foot osteomyelitis: a progress report on diagnosis and a systematic review of treatment”. Diabetes Metab. Res. Rev. 24 Suppl 1: S145–61. doi:10.1002/dmrr.836. PMID 18442163.