osteomyelitis
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Osteomyelitis (OM) is the infectious inflammation of bone. It may be acute or chronic and can be classified as hematogenous or non-hematogenous. It is commonly caused by bacterial infection, but rarely can be due to fungal infection.
Key facts
- Medical condition.name
- Osteomyelitis
- Medical condition.synonym
- Bone infection
- Medical condition.image
- OsteomylitisMark.png
- Medical condition.caption
- Osteomyelitis of the 1st toe
- Medical condition.field
- Infectious disease, orthopedics
- Medical condition.symptoms
- Pain in a specific bone, overlying redness, fever, weakness
- Medical condition.complications
- Amputation
- Medical condition.onset
- Young or old
- Medical condition.duration
- Short or long term
- Medical condition.causes
- Bacterial, fungal
- Medical condition.risks
- Diabetes, intravenous drug use, prior removal of the spleen, trauma to the area
- Medical condition.diagnosis
- Blood tests, medical imaging, bone biopsy
- Medical condition.differential
- Charcot's joint, rheumatoid arthritis, infectious arthritis, giant cell tumor, cellulitis
- Medical condition.treatment
- Antimicrobials, surgery
- Medical condition.prognosis
- Low risk of death with treatment
- Medical condition.frequency
- 2.4 per 100,000 per year
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
38,807 papers- Pyogenic Vertebral Osteomyelitis.Infectious disease clinics of North America · 2025
- Microbiology of Acute and Chronic Osteomyelitis and Antibiotic Treatment.Dental clinics of North America · 2017
- Osteomyelitis.The New England journal of medicine · 1997
- Osteomyelitis.The Journal of trauma · 2007
- Osteomyelitis in adolescents.Adolescent medicine: state of the art reviews · 2007
via PubMed
Wikidata facts
Show 4 more facts
- exact match
- purl.obolibrary.org/obo/HP_0002754
- ICD-9-CM
- 730.10
- Commons category
- Osteomyelitis
- NCI Thesaurus ID
- C27577
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Article
15 sectionsContents
- Signs and symptoms
- Complications
- Cause
- Risk Factors
- Pathogenesis
- Diagnosis
- Classification
- Treatment
- Prevention or Screening
- Epidemiology
- History
- Fossil record
- See also
- References
- External links
Osteomyelitis (OM) is the infectious inflammation of bone. It may be acute or chronic and can be classified as hematogenous or non-hematogenous. It is commonly caused by bacterial infection, but rarely can be due to fungal infection.
Symptoms are commonly non-specific but may include pain, swelling and redness around the affected area. In adults, the most commonly affected site is the spine and in pediatric populations the most commonly affected site is the long bones. Diagnosis is suspected on the basis of clinical presentation and aided by laboratory and imaging studies and made definitive by biopsy and culture of the presenting area. Treatment of bacterial OM involves antimicrobials and can involve surgery or even amputation. Outcomes are generally good when the condition has been present only a short time.