RADIOLOGICAL SPECTRUM OF OSTEOMYELITIS

Osteomyelitis remains a vexing illness and the outcome is often unsatisfactory despite major advances in surgery and antimicrobial therapy. Clinical experience is the guidebook for management as there is a paucity of controlled clinical trials and a lack of long term follow up in most published reports. The term "Osteomyelitis" taken implies inammation of the bone and its marrow regardless of whether it is due to pyogenic organisms, tuberculosis, Syphilis, a specic virus or the presence of a foreign body such as shrapnel. Osteomyelitis affects the metaphysic of long bones commonly out of which the bone ends in small children are most susceptible sites. Osteomyelitis in drug addicts may occur in unusual locations, such as clavicle and sternum. Axial involvement appears to be more prevalent than long bone involvement. Post-traumatic and postoperative osteomyelitis develops after treatment for compound fractures, prosthetic replacement and pin-track xation. Radiologically the acute and subacute osteomyelitis pose a diagnostic problem due to very little or absent radiological evidence. Chronic osteomyelitis is more a disease of chronic ischemia than of chronic sepsis