Lecture 18: Osteomyelitis Flashcards
What is osteomyelitis?
Infection and inflammation of the bone or bone marrow (Usually metapheseal area)
What are some common symptoms of osteomyelitis in children?
- Limping or inability to walk
- Fever and focal tenderness (b/c in blood)
- Sometimes visible redness and swelling around a bone.
What are the likely bugs for:
- Prosthetic joint infection
- Vertebral osteomyelitis
- Post-traumatic infection
- Diabetic foot infection
Staph aureus (amongst other things)
Whats the route of infection for osteomyelitis?
- Trauma (Join replacement, root canal etc)
- Spreading from local area of infection i.e SSTI, diabetic ulcer
- Hematogenous route (Bacteremia)
Whats the pathogenesis of osteomyelitis?
- Bacteria infect bone (Colonise and proliferate)
- Leukocytes infiltrate infected site and fight bacteria
- Inflammation and formation of pus
- Devascularisation, dead bone, abscess
- Bacteria might have invaded bone cells and evade immune system + drugs
- Bacteria might spread to joints (septic arthritis)
Whats of note when it comes to joint aspirate of septic athritis?
It will not be clear unlike rheumatic fever
Who is at risk for developing osteomyelitis?
- Diabetics with foot ulcers
- Patients with infections following trauma, bone surgery, joint replacement
- IV drug users
- Root canal treatment
- SSTI
- Can be children with chicken pox
What are the pathogens of osteomyelitis?
- ~80% will be staphylococcus aureus
OR
- GAS - S. pyogenes
- GBS
- Coagulase negative staphylococci
- Hemophilus influenzae
- Enterobacter spp
How is osteomyelitis diagnosed?
Complex…
- Specific symptoms: Pain/weakness of specific bones, redness, fever +/- bacteria in blood
- BLOODS: WBC high, elevated CRP, bacteria present
- Radiology, not great, MRI can confirm but expensive
- Bone biopsy is specific but invasive.
Whats a gram stain indicative of?
Positive = thick layer of peptidyglycan = sensitive to penicillins
Negative = extra outer membrane and insensitive to penicillins
Describe the subsequent tests following identification of gram status:
Gram +ive i.e staphylococcus -> Coagulase status.
Coag +ive = S. Aureus ONLY. Coag-ive (CONS): could be s. epidermis for example, but others.
Gram -ive i.e streptococcus -> Hemolysis study
Alpha hemolysis = S. pneumoniae or Viridians strep
Beta hemolysis = S Pyogenes
Gamma hemolysis = Enterococcus
Write some notes on staphylococcus aureus as a pathogen:
Habitat: Anterior nares, transiently on skin
Transmission: Human-human
Source of infection: Comm and hospital (one of the most nosocomial)
Diseases: SSTI, invasive disease, toxic shock and more
How can S. aureus cause skin infections?
Breaks in skin i.e splinter, cracks or via hair follicles
What are the virulence factors of S. aureus?
- Adhesins: For binding host tissues (Colonisation)
- Immune evasion factors: Neutralise certain parts of the immune response.
- Spreading factors: Allow bacteria to spread from local infection into deeper tissues or blood i.e proteases, DNAases, Hyaluronidase
Write some notes on Adhesins and their function, and examples:
MSCRAMS: Microbial Surface Components REcognising Adhesive Matrix Molecules
Binds structures such as ECM