Managing lower-extremity osteomyelitis locally with surgical debridement and synthetic calcium sulfate antibiotic tablets

This paper reports the use of antibiotic-impregnated synthetic calcium sulfate in managing lower extremity osteomyelitis has shown encouraging results without the use of oral and/or intravenous antibiotics. The results showed 279 of 323 patients (86.4%) clinically healed without the use of I.V. antibiotics following surgical debridement and implantation of synthetic calcium sulfate beads used as a carrier material for antibiotics. Of the 323 patients 24 (7.4%) required additional use of I.V. antibiotics to clinically heal, giving overall clinical healing of 303/323 (93.8%). Following treatment, no recurrence of osteomyelitis to any specific anatomical location was seen in the longest follow-up period of 5.5 years. The study did not observe the wound complications associated with similarly used mined and refined calcium sulfates. The abstract can be read, and the full paper can be obtained here.