A bone infection, also known as osteomyelitis, occurs when bacteria or fungi invade your bone. Osteomyelitis develops when these pathogens from nearby tissue or organ travel through your bloodstream to the bone and multiply. Organisms can invade deep wounds causing infections to adjacent bones. Surgical sites such as bone fracture surgery can allow bacteria in leading to osteomyelitis, but early treatment can prevent permanent bone damage. Treatment at your trusted medical facility, Dallas Wound Evolution-Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine, will be based on the cause of your bone infection.

Symptoms

Pain at the infection site is the first symptom you will experience. Fever, chills, redness, swelling, irritability, stiffness, inability to use the affected part, nausea, and drainage from the area are other symptoms of bone infection.

Diagnosis

Physical exam: Your specialist will do a physical exam to detect swelling, pain, and discoloration.

Blood tests: Your doctor can do a blood culture to check for bacteria in your bloodstream. A complete blood count can show inflammation and infection signs.

Imaging tests: X-ray, MRI, CT scan, and ultrasounds show your bones, muscle, and tissue images.

Bone scan: Bone scans use radioactive materials to identify infections or fractures during imaging tests. A bone scan shows cellular and metabolic activities in the bones.

Biopsy: Your doctor will do a needle biopsy to take fluid, tissue, or bone samples to check for infections.

Treatments

Antibiotics: They treat bacterial infections. You might take antibiotics for four to eight weeks. Your doctor will recommend starting with intravenous antibiotics in the health facility for one or two weeks. You make take antibiotics for months in chronic cases.

Antifungals: Your doctor will recommend oral antifungals to treat fungal infections causing osteomyelitis.

Needle aspiration: If your bone infection has an abscess, your doctor will use fine needles to drain fluid and pus from it.

Pain relievers: You can relieve pain and inflammation with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications.

Surgical options: In chronic infections, your specialist will recommend bone surgery to remove the infected tissue and bone. Your surgeon will also deduct a small part of healthy bone and surrounding tissues with infections signs to prevent the infection from spreading further and ensure all infection is removed. After surgery, your doctor will give you antibiotics to supplement healing.

Risk factors

You are more likely to develop a bone infection if you have a weak immune system, usually due to chemotherapy, radiation treatments, malnutrition, or dialysis. People with foot ulcers related to diabetes are at risk of getting a bone infection. Osteomyelitis can also arise from broken bone or bone surgeries and blood infections like sickle cell anemia.

Complications

• Abscesses: Bone infection can spread to your muscles and tissues, leading to abscesses. Pus from the cyst can pop through the skin, and they can recur. Repeated treatments can cause skin cancer.
• Bone death: It occurs when swelling from the infection cuts off blood supply to the bone.
• Stunted growth: Bone infection in children can lead to stunted bone growth.

If you have osteomyelitis, visit your reliable doctor because poor treatment can lead to permanent bone loss. Schedule an appointment at Wound Evolution for bone infection treatment to ease its symptoms.