Surgical management of infected bone cavities

ABSTRACT

Thirty patients with chronic bone infection and infected bone cavities in different skeletal sites were treated surgically by radical debridement and obliteration of the dead space either by cancellous bone grafting or by local muscle transposition, together with specific antibiotic therapy after proper identification of the infecting bacteria. These cases were done in the period from 1994 to 1997. Half of the cases [group I] [fifteen cases] were treated surgically by radical debridement and obliteration of the dead space by cancellous bone grafting. The other fifteen cases [group II] were treated by radical debridement and obliteration of the dead space by local muscle transposition. Results were evaluated both clinically and statistically. Clinically local muscle transposition for obliteration of bone cavities gave better results [93% eradication of infection] than cancellous bone grafting [80% eradication of infection]. Statistically there are no significant differences between both methods of treatment