1238 Surgical Management of Chronic Osteomyelitis of the Femur and Tibia: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Abstract Aim This scoping review aims to map and summarise the literature on treatment of chronic femoral and tibial osteomyelitis, in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of potential treatment options, whilst also identifying areas of future research Method This scoping review was guided by the methodological framework of the Joanna Briggs institute. A computer-based search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Emcare and CINAHL, for articles reporting treatment of chronic tibial/femoral osteomyelitis. Title/abstract and full text screening was performed independently by two reviewers according to pre-defined criteria. Results A total of 1223 articles were identified, with 40 studies, involving 2,489 patients being finally included. A range of treatments are reported, with the key reported principles being removal of infected tissue, dead-space management and antibiotic therapy. The majority (76.2%) of patients presented with stage III or IV disease according to the Cierny-Mader classification and the most commonly cultured pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus. The proportion of patients achieving remission with no recurrence during follow up varies from 72.0% - 100.0%. Conclusions The majority of studies report excellent outcomes in terms of infection remission and lack of recurrence. However, using the current literature to identify specific patient and treatment related factors which may affect treatment results is challenging due to a number of potential confounding factors. Further high-level research such as randomized control trials and comparative studies are required to achieve this.