Abstract
Aims: Long-term quality assessment of intramedullary reaming of chronic osteomyelitis in long bones. Methods: Forty-three patients with forty-four chronic, consecutive, diaphysal osteomyelitis in long bones where treated by intramedullary reaming. Charts where retrospectively evaluated and a follow-up investigation took place. Results: The mean follow-up for thirty-four surviving patients was 117 months (84–178 months). At the follow-up, twenty-three patients work full-time, three have a reduced ability to work, and eight have retired. Twenty-seven patients have no pain, seven have mild pain, and one case has moderate pain during working or walking. Nine patients died during the follow-up. In thirty-seven cases (83%) osteomyelitis never reoccurred at the time of death or follow-up. Five patients needed revisions. One þstula closed spontaneously and one patient didnñt want a revision. Conclusions: The reaming technique as well as an interdisciplinary antibiotic therapy seems to inßuence the outcome. In attendance to the described technique, intramedullar reaming after post-traumatic or haematogenous osteomyelitis of the diaphysis of long bones proves to be a valuable treatment procedure with a local recurrence of 7% within þve years and 23% within fourteen years.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Dr. Frantz Langlais. Correspondence should be addressed to him at EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
