Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics, pathogenic bacteria, complications and risk factors of prognosis of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis in children. Methods: The clinical manifestations, laboratorg tests, etiological charateristics and clinical data of 107 patients with acute hematogenous osteomyelitis admitted to Beijing Children's Hospital from January 2017 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the drug sensitivity results of Staphylococcus aureus, the group was divided into methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) group; according to the presence or absence of complications, the group was divided into the group with and without complications; according to the prognosis of the follow-up children, the group was divided into good prognosis and poor prognosis. The χ² test or Mann-Whitney U test used for comparison between groups, and Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for complications and prognosis. Results: Of the 107 patients, 62 were males and 45 were females. The age of presentation was 5.6 (1.7, 10.0) years, including 5 patients (4.7%) age from >28 days to 3 months, 46 patients (43.0%) age from >3 months to 5 years, 43 patients (40.2%)>5-12 years of age, and 13 patients (12.1%)>12-18 years of age. The first symptoms were acute fever in 35 patients (32.7%), limb pain in 24 patients (22.4%), and fever with limb pain in 23 patients (21.5%). Pathogen culture was positive in 75 patients (70.1%), Streptococcus pyogenes, Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli in 1 case (1.4%) each, and Staphylococcus aureus in 72 cases (96.0%), among them, 47 cases were MSSA, 22 cases were MRSA, and 3 cases had positive reports of Staphylococcus aureus from other hospitals without drug-sensitive tests. The proportion of infected children living in rural areas and receiving surgical treatment was higher in the MRSA group than in the MSSA group (14 cases (63.6%) vs. 18 cases (38.3%) and 21 cases (95.5%) vs. 33 cases (70.2%), χ²=3.87, 4.23, both P<0.05). Sixty-five children had no complications while 42 children (39.3%) suffered from complications. Common complications consisted of 19 cases (17.8%) of sepsis, 17 cases (15.9%) of septic arthritis, and 12 cases (11.2%) of venous thrombosis. The group with complications showed higher mental changes, decreased appetite and (or) weakness, positive pathogenic cultures, and time from admission to surgery than the group without complications (18 cases (42.9%) vs. 9 cases (13.8%), 20 cases (47.6%) vs. 12 cases (18.5%), 34 cases (81.0%) vs. 41 cases (63.1%), 3.5 (2.0, 6.0) vs. 2.0 (1.0, 4.0) d,χ²=11.38, 10.35, 3.89, Z=2.21, all P<0.05). The poor prognosis group had more comorbidities, combined local complications, and positive aureus than the good prognosis group (10/15 vs. 34.9% (30/86), 7/15 vs. 17.4% (15/86), 14/15 vs. 61.6% (53/86), χ²=5.39, 6.40, 4.42, all P<0.05). Multifactorial Logistic regression analysis showed that acute phase C-reactive protein (CRP) was both an independent risk factor for complications (OR=1.01, 95%CI 1.01-1.02) and an independent risk factor for poor prognosis (OR=1.01, 95%CI 1.00-1.02). Conclusions: The first symptoms of acute hematogenous osteomyelitis are acute fever, limb pain, and fever with limb pain are most common. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common pathogenic organism. Those with loss of appetite and (or) weakness, mental changes, positive pathogenic cultures, and longer time between admission and surgery are prone to complications. Those with complications, combined local complications, and positive for Staphylococcus aureus had a poor prognosis. Elevated CRP is an independent risk factor not only for complications but for poor prognosis as well.
Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use* ; Child ; Female ; Fever/etiology* ; Humans ; Male ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; Osteomyelitis/microbiology* ; Pain/drug therapy* ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Staphylococcal Infections/diagnosis* ; Staphylococcus aureus

Candida vertebral osteomyelitis (CVO) is a rare disease that is a complication of intravenous drug use, but recently it has been recognized as mostly an opportunistic infection. Because CVO appears to mimic pyogenic spondylodiscitis in terms of the clinical and radiologic presentations, it is often neglected in a usual clinical setting. The clinical, radiological, and biological characteristics of CVO are often used to make a differential diagnosis with vertebral osteomyelitis from other etiologies. Once an initial proper diagnosis was performed, the treatment relies on the prompt initiation of appropriate pharmacotherapy and serial monitoring of the clinical progress. This paper report late-onset CVO in two young patients who underwent a heart transplant surgery and had postoperative systemic candidiasis. These two cases are a good reminder of the potential of CVO in immunosuppressive patients treated with anti-fungal agents. This paper presents these two cases with a review of the relevant literature.
Candida ; Candidiasis ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Discitis ; Drug Therapy ; Heart Transplantation ; Heart ; Humans ; Opportunistic Infections ; Osteomyelitis ; Population Characteristics ; Rare Diseases

Chronic osteomyelitis is one of the most common disorder in clinic. In recent years due to diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and trauma induced disease increased, the prevalence rate increased. With the development of magnetic resonance imaging and CT imaging technology, it greatly improved the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of chronic osteomyclitis and ability to describe the infection characteristics, and provide a reliable basis for clinical treatment. The current research on chronic osteomyelitis mainly concentrated on the aspects of imaging applications and ways of using antibiotic optimization control inflammation, defect restoration and reconstruction of blood supply and treatment. But the best time to the antibiotic therapy and the use of program is still uncertain, for after debridement, bone grafting time and defect repair function of fast recovery still need further research.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; therapeutic use ; Chronic Disease ; Humans ; Osteomyelitis ; diagnosis ; therapy

Mycobacterium longobardum is a slow-growing, nontuberculous mycobacterium that was first characterized from the M. terrae complex in 2012. We report a case of M. longobardum induced chronic osteomyelitis. A 71-yr-old man presented with inflammation in the left elbow and he underwent a surgery under the suspicion of tuberculous osteomyelitis. The pathologic tissue culture grew M. longobardum which was identified by analysis of the 65-kDa heat shock protein and full-length 16S rRNA genes. The patient was cured with the medication of clarithromycin and ethambutol without further complications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a M. longobardum infection worldwide.
Aged ; Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Bacterial Proteins/genetics ; Chaperonin 60/genetics ; Clarithromycin/therapeutic use ; Elbow/pathology ; Ethambutol/therapeutic use ; Humans ; Male ; Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous/*microbiology ; Nontuberculous Mycobacteria/classification/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Osteomyelitis/diagnosis/drug therapy/*microbiology/pathology ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; Treatment Outcome

C-Reactive Protein ; analysis ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Osteomyelitis ; diagnosis ; therapy

Variceal bleeding and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) are serious and life-threatening complications of advanced liver disease. Terlipressin is widely used to manage both acute variceal bleeding and HRS due to its potency and long duration of action. The most severe (though rare) adverse event is ischemia. The present report describes the case of a patient with gangrene and osteomyelitis secondary to terlipressin therapy. A 71-year-old male with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B) and chronic hepatitis C was admitted due to a drowsy mental status. The patient had several experiences of orthopedic surgery. His creatinine level had gradually elevated to 4.02 mg/dL, and his urine output decreased to 500 mL/24 hr. The patient was diagnosed as having grade III hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and type II HRS. Terlipressin and albumin were administered intravenously to treat the HRS over 11 days. Although he recovered from the HE and HRS, the patient developed peripheral gangrene and osteomyelitis in both feet. His right toes were cured with the aid of rescue therapy, but his left three toes had to be amputated. Peripheral gangrene and osteomyelitis secondary to terlipressin therapy occur only rarely, and there is no specific rescue therapy for these conditions. Thus, attention should be paid to the possibility of ischemia of the skin and bone during or after terlipressin therapy.
Aged ; Creatinine/blood ; Foot/pathology ; Gangrene/*etiology ; Hepatitis C, Chronic/complications ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis/complications/diagnosis ; Liver Diseases/*diagnosis/drug therapy ; Lypressin/adverse effects/*analogs & derivatives/therapeutic use ; Male ; Osteomyelitis/*etiology ; Severity of Illness Index ; Toe Phalanges/radiography ; Vasoconstrictor Agents/*adverse effects/therapeutic use

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; therapeutic use ; Femur ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Osteomyelitis ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy

Skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) is difficult to diagnose when a patient presents with multiple cranial nerve palsies but no obvious infectious focus. There is no report about SBO with septic pulmonary embolism. A 51-yr-old man presented to our hospital with headache, hoarseness, dysphagia, frequent choking, fever, cough, and sputum production. He was diagnosed of having masked mastoiditis complicated by SBO with multiple cranial nerve palsies, sigmoid sinus thrombosis, and septic pulmonary embolism. We successfully treated him with antibiotics and anticoagulants alone, with no surgical intervention. His neurologic deficits were completely recovered. Decrease of pulmonary nodules and thrombus in the sinus was evident on the follow-up imaging one month later. In selected cases of intracranial complications of SBO and septic pulmonary embolism, secondary to mastoiditis with early response to antibiotic therapy, conservative treatment may be considered and surgical intervention may be withheld.
Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use ; Anticoagulants/therapeutic use ; C-Reactive Protein/analysis ; Cranial Nerve Diseases/complications/diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Enterobacter aerogenes/isolation & purification ; Enterobacteriaceae Infections/diagnosis/drug therapy ; Humans ; Lung/pathology/radiography ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Mastoiditis/complications/diagnosis ; Middle Aged ; Osteomyelitis/complications/*diagnosis/drug therapy ; Pulmonary Embolism/complications/*diagnosis/microbiology ; Sinus Thrombosis, Intracranial/complications/diagnosis ; Skull Base ; Sputum/microbiology ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Pyogenic spondylitis involving only the posterior element of a vertebra is rare. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of osteomyelitis of the transverse process. We report here on a 45-year-old male with a one month history of swelling associated with lower back pain. The magnetic resonance imaging showed a paraspinal soft tissue mass, and computed tomography revealed a fine osteolytic lesion in the right transverse process of the 5th lumbar spine, and this was all consistent with chronic osteomyelitis. A mixed staphylococcal infection was identified. Open drainage, resection of the transverse process and intravenous injection of anti-staphylococcal antibiotics resolved the back pain and reduced the erythrocyte sedimentation rate to normal. Pyogenic osteomyelitis of the transverse process is extremely rare, which can cause a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis. Careful consideration of this disease is needed when evaluating patients who complain of back pain.
Chronic Disease ; Humans ; *Lumbar Vertebrae ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteomyelitis/*diagnosis/therapy ; Spinal Diseases/*diagnosis/therapy ; Staphylococcal Infections/*diagnosis/therapy ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

OBJECTIVEIn order to sum up the experience of diagnosis and treatment, the clinical information, diagnostic approach and treatment strategies from 23 patients with hematogenous pyogenic discitis and vertebral osteomyelitis (PDVO) in adults were reviewed.

METHODSA retrospective record review was conducted of all cases of hematogenous PDVO from July 1999 to October 2006, the diagnostic approach and the treatment strategies were discussed.

RESULTSThe average age was 55.4 years. The average delayed diagnosis time was 4.4 months (range, 4 weeks to 11 months). Of these, 17 had underlying diseases such as diabetes mellitus, chronic alcoholism, liver cirrhosis, rheumatic disease, and the use of corticosteroids. All percent had elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rates and C-reactive proteins, while white blood cell counts were less reliably elevated. Imaging studies included radiographs and MRI. Seven patients were treated with immobilization and intravenous antibiotic drugs. Because of a delay in diagnosis, 16 patients underwent operative treatment for hematogenous PDVO using staged anterior debridement and Bone grafting with iliac crest or rib strut, anterior spinal instrumentation in 3 patients, posterior instrumentation was placed in 7 patients at a second procedure 10 days to 2 weeks following initial operation. Twenty-three patients were followed-up for an average period of 27 months, with a minimum of 6 months and the longest for 7 years. The patients return to their preoperative everyday activity. No patient had a recurrence of osteomyelitis. All their symptoms improved after surgery, bony fusion occurred in 87.5% of cases.

CONCLUSIONSAdult hematogenous PDVO is a disease that affects mainly older patients suffering underlying medical illnesses. Positive blood cultures is valuable for the diagnosis. Hematogenous PDVO may require surgery in case of a development of biomechanical instability and/or a vertebral collapse with progressive deformity. In experienced hands, surgical debridement, interbody fusion, and anterior or posterior instrumentation is a safe and effective treatment.

Adult ; Aged ; Discitis ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; therapy ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Osteomyelitis ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies