Analysis of oral radiographic images in patients with osteomyelitis accompanied by systemic sickle cell anemia

Abstract

Infections in the jawbone present many complications to both doctors and patients. One systemic factor that increases the risk of disorders in the oral cavity is sickle cell anemia (SCA). Patients with SCA also have an increased risk of orthopedic mani-festations such as osteomyelitis. Osteomyelitis features vary in their radiographic appearance, which can be panoramic, peri-apical, and occlusal, or additional modalities. This article reviews the radiographs of osteomyelitis in the oral cavity with risk fac-tors such as SCA, using the literature review method. The step is to collect information from several sources from the literature. It was found that panoramic, periapical, and computed tomography (CT) radiographs are the most commonly used radiographs and are able to describe the characteristics of osteomyelitis in SCA patients specifically. It was concluded that the typical pic-ture of CT examination type is associated bone sequestra which is a typical picture of osteomyelitis with SCA. While on pa-noramic and periapical radiographs a diffuse radiolucent picture and bone resorption are found and other radiographic feat-ures can be found in the form of small radiopaque areas and bone infarcts around the apex of the associated teeth.