Osteomyelitis

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

X-ray

Skeleton

Osteomyelitis

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Osteomyelitis

Symptoms:

Pain in the bone
Local swelling, redness, and warmth
Fever
Nausea
General discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling (malaise)
Drainage of pus through the skin (in chronic osteomyelitis)

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease:

Signs and tests:

A physical examination shows bone tenderness and possibly swelling and redness.

A bone scan indicates infected bone.
A CBC shows elevated white blood cell count.
The ESR is elevated.
Blood cultures may help identify the causative organism.
An MRI and a needle aspiration of the area around infected bones for culture may be done.
A bone lesion biopsy and culture may be positive for the organism.
A skin lesion with a sinus tract (the lesion "tunnels" under the tissues) may yield drainage of pus for culture.

This disease may alter the results of the following tests:

Review Date: 7/8/2004
Reviewed By: Daniel Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Infectious Diseases, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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