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Symptoms of osteomyelitis include:
Very small children might not show these symptoms. These symptoms are common in other conditions and may not mean that your child has an infected bone.
See your doctor if your child has any of the symptoms or signs of a bone infection. You don’t want to wait very long, because infections can get worse the longer they are left untreated. Osteomyelitis can be hard to treat, so the earlier you treat it, the better.
Osteomyelitis may be caused by:
Osteomyelitis may occur with other risk factors, including:
Osteomyelitis can be diagnosed with different kinds of tests, including:
Osteomyelitis treatment works to stop the infection from hurting your child’s bones and the muscles and tissues around them.
Two major treatments are used:
Antibiotics attack the infection and help destroy it.
If your child has had osteomyelitis for some time, and dead bone tissue has started to show up, surgery may be needed to remove it. Surgery may also be used if other treatment methods, like antibiotics, don’t help your child get better on their own.
Surgery can be done to take out plates and screws that might be near the area of the infection. Osteomyelitis can also result in areas of bone that need to be filled with material to help the bone grow back. Surgery can be done to place a bone graft in the gaps where the bone has worn down.
Osteomyelitis can be prevented by practicing good hygiene. If your child has a wound or deep cut, be sure to clean and bandage it quickly, so that germs and bacteria don’t have a chance to cause an infection.
If you have an open fracture, which is a kind of fracture where the bone breaks through the skin, seek emergency medical attention right away. Your health care provider will clean the injury and treat the fracture to help prevent infection.
Medline Plus: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007697.htm
KidsHealth.org: https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/osteomyelitis.html
Osteomyelitis [os-tee-oh-mahy-uh-LAHY-tis] is an infection of the bone. Children who get this type of bone infection usually get it in the tibia, femur, fibula, or other long bones in their bodies.
Osteomyelitis occurs when the middle part of the bone, the bone marrow (where blood is made) gets infected. It can be treated with a combination of antibiotics (medicine to fight the infection) or surgery (to replace areas that have decayed due to infection, or to remove dead bone tissue).
Your child can usually be cured of their osteomyelitis with these 2 treatment methods. Sometimes the infected bone may get a hole in it that can require surgery.
Osteomyelitis can be:
Treatment for osteomyelitis may require your child to stay in the hospital for a few days to recover.
It can be hard to diagnose osteomyelitis because younger children and infants can be asymptomatic [ey-simp-tuh-MAT-ik], which means that there are no obvious signs of the infection.