Acute osteomyelitis in children in Ibadan, Nigeria. Is surgical decompression necessary?

Abstract

A total of 17 Children with acute osteomyelitis presenting to division of orthopaedics and trauma surgery is presented. The male:female ratio is 1:1:3, mean age of 6.12 years. The median time of illness before presentation is 8 days. The Tibia bone is the most common site of infection (52.9%) while multifocal infection occurs in 35.3% of the patient. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common isolate (47.1%) while Salmonella typhi occurred in 23.5% of the patients, all with sickle cell disease. There was positive bone aspirate in all the patients while all patient had surgical intervention with sequential intravenous - oral antibiotic therapy with an excellent outcome in 94.1%. Surgical
intervention appears to be essential to cure of acute osteomyelitis in addition to antibiotic use.