Methods

The management of 22 patients treated with oral linezolid for orthopaedic related infections were reviewed. Patients were selected from the hospital database using clinical coding related to orthopaedic infections and all patients were managed within a single tertiary referral centre. These included infected joint arthroplasty (10 patients), infection following fracture fixation (8 patients), septic arthritis and soft tissue infection (non trauma 4 patients). All patients were treated with oral linezolid therapy, and in each case treatment was initiated with the involvement of a microbiologist, as per trust anti-microbial policy. A diagnosis of infection was confirmed on basis of both subjective and objective markers.