diagnostic value of sinus-track cultures in secondary pediatric chronic osteomyelitis

ABSTRACT

To determine and compare the diagnosis value and accuracy of culture of material from a sinus track with culture of material from bone specimens. Retrospective study. Dicle University Medical School and Batman State Hospital, Turkey. Twenty-one patients with secondary chronic osteomyelitis [COM]. Material for cultures was taken from the sinus as well as the bone specimens. Surgery for COM. The diagnostic value of sinus track cultures. The mean age of patients was 8.5 +/- 3.8 years. 15 [71.4%] were male and six [28.6%] were female. Organisms isolates from bone cultures were Staphylococcus 71.4% [15 / 21], Pseudomonas aeruginosa 9.5% [2 /21], Escherichia coli 9.5% [2 / 21], Proteus mirabilis 4.8% [1 / 21], Klebsiella pneumoniae 4.8% [1 / 21], respectively. Cultures of sinus track material and bone specimens gave identical results in 47.6% of patients. This study shows that if treatment of COM was planned according to the microbiological analysis of material from the sinus-track, it may not result in recovery every time. We found approximately 48% concordance between sinus-track and bone cultures. In other words, antimicrobial therapy guided by antibiograms of bacteria isolated from sinus-track would be inappropriate in 52% of patients with COM and result in treatment failure