ORIGINAL STUDY Acta Orthop. Belg., 2005, 71, 209-212 A prospective observational study was conducted at J. N. Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, to compare the bacterial flora obtained from sequestrum culture and sinus track culture and to evaluate their antibiotic sensitivity. A total of 62 patients with chronic osteomyelitis were enrolled (38 males and 24 females). Sinus track cultures were done taking all aseptic precautions and the results were compared. Thirty three patients out of 62 showed a discrepancy between the bacterial flora grown from sinus track and sequestrum cultures. INTRODUCTION Chronic osteomyelitis is a common cause of morbidity in the developing countries. The disease is more common in children. It is commonly a sequel of treated or untreated acute osteomyelitis. Undertreatment is a result of inadequate or unsuit- able antibiotic therapy. The isolation of a proper causative organism and its antibiotic sensitivity is important as far as the treatment is concerned. In cases of chronic osteomyelitis, sinus tracks fre- quently develop from infected bone to the skin. The infected piece of bone is the sequestrum. Investi- gators have used the cultures of specimens from sinus tracks to identify the pathogen (1, 3, 5, 6, 10-14). In doing so, they have assumed that bacterial cul- tures from the sinus track originate from bone infection itself. Antibiotic resistance and secondary infection of the sinus tracks may contribute to erro- neous results. Several authors have compared the results of sinus track specimen cultures with the results of bone biopsy/sequestrum cultures (2, 4, 7, 8). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the bacterial flora obtained through the sinus track specimen and sequestrum cultures in patients with chronic osteomyelitis. The study also aims to eval- uate the bacterial sensitivity to various antibiotics and thus provide a cost-effective strategy in control of chronic osteomyelitis. MATERIAL AND METHODS This was a prospective observational study. A total of 62 cases of radiologically proven chronic osteomyelitis that visited J. N. Medical College Hospital, A.M.U., Aligarh, were included in the study. Forty-nine out of the 62 were less than 12 years of age. There were 38 males and 24 females. Cases of post-traumatic osteomyelitis and infected implants were excluded from the study. Sinus track cultures were taken under full Acta Orthopædica Belgica, Vol. 71 - 2 - 2005 Comparison of the results of sinus track culture and sequestrum culture in chronic osteomyelitis Saurabh AGARWAL, Mohd ZAHID, Mohd K. A. SHERWANI, Mazhar ABBAS, Najmul HUDA, Abdul Qayyum KHAN From the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College A.M.U., Aligarh, India ■ Saurabh Agarwal, MD, Senior Resident. ■ Mohd Zahid, MD, Reader. ■ Mohd. Khalid Anwar Sherwani, MD, Reader. ■ Mazhar Abbas, MD, Lecturer. ■ Najmul Huda, MD, Senior Resident. ■ Abdul Qayyum Khan, MD, Senior Resident. Correspondence : Saurabh Agarwal, Department of Ortho- paedic Surgery, J. N. Medical College, A.M.U., Aligarh. U.P. 202002, India. E-mail : najamnajam@rediffmail.com. © 2005, Acta Orthopædica Belgica.