MORPHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF CONSEQUENCES OF LONG BONE OSTEOMYELITIS IN CHILDREN

Abstract

The authors studied morphological changes in bone, cartilage and soft tissue from the zone of old inflammation and far from it in 36 children with pathological hip dislocation, in 23 - with limb shortening, in 13 - with pseudoarthrosis and long bone defects after osteomyelitis. Morphological assessment of proximal femur tissue in children, who had hematogenous osteomyelitis in early childhood, identified severe changes in cartilage and bone tissue which accompanied by muscle pathology. The state of the femoral head articular cartilage and acetabulum in patients with pathological hip dislocation is characterized by degenerative changes of varying severity (up to the formation of necrobiosis and necrosis focus), by the replacement of hyaline cartilage by tissue, formed by the type of fibrous cartilage and fibrous (scar) tissue. This picture did not have significant differences depending on the osteomyelitis prescription. Directly in the area of the former inflammatory process, as well as in the ends of pseudoarthrosis bone fragments of long bone the degenerative changes of bone tissue with the signs of resorption and low-grade osteogenic activity are marked. The morphological texture of the femur diaphysis, located far from the old inflammation, did not differ from normal. It may indicate its potency for normal bone formation. Muscle tissue in the area of old inflammation keeps the signs of unevenly expressed degeneration and atrophy. Far from this zone muscle tissue doesn’t differ from its usual structure. The described morphological changes can serve as justification for the improvement of methods of surgical treatment in children with consequences of osteomyelitis.