Available online at www.pelagiaresearchlibrary.com Pelagia Research Library Advances in Applied Science Research, 2015, 6(2): 150-153 ISSN: 0976-8610 CODEN (USA): AASRFC 150 Pelagia Research Library Chronic osteomyelitis in a Ghanaian Specialist Hospital Kuubiere B. Callistus, Abass Alhassan, Saeed F Majeed and Victor Mogre Department of Human Biology, School of Medicine and Health Science, University for Development Studies, Tamale _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Chronic osteomyelitis refers to inflammation of bone lasting 3 weeks or more which is most frequent among infants and children. This study looked at the incidence and associated factors of chronic osteomyelitis at the Tania specialist hospital, Tamale, Ghana. Information on patients with chronic osteomyelitis was retrieved from their folders. Using a standardized form, disease aetiology, age, sex and site of bone involved as well as previous orthopaedic operations were collected. Sequestrectomy, curettage, debridement, and lavage of wound with Ringer’s lactate solution; or incision and drainage, curettage, sequestrectomy, lavage of wound with Ringer’s lactate solution were done for all cases. Of the 43 cases, 65.1% were males yielding a male to female ratio of 1.9:1. With a mean age of 24.88 ± 16.97 years, the highest incidence of chronic osteomyelitis was recorded in the age group of 11-20 years; 37.2% (n=16). Over 70% of the patients were ≤ 40 years of age (72.1%, n=31). The tibia (65.1%) and the femur (18.6%) were the most frequently affected bones. The most frequently isolated organisms were Staphylococcus aureus (48.8%, n=21) and Pseudomonas spp (25.6%, n=1); no organism could be cultured from 1 patient. The incidence of chronic osteomyelitis was more frequent in males than in females and those aged 40 years or less. Over 70% of the cases that occurred in those less than 40 years were children. The tibia and the femur bones were the most frequently infected bones. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION The incidence of osteomyelitis especially chronic osteomyelitis is still prevalent among children and young adult in many parts of Africa as a result of the persistent prevalence of the predisposing factors such diabetes, vascular diseases and sickle cell anaemia. The increasing rate of antibiotic resistance to many pathogenic bacteria in this part of the world further complicates this problem. Osteomyelitis is generally classified as acute or chronic based on either histopathologic findings or duration of infection. It can also be categorized based on the presumed mechanism of infection (haematogenuous or direct inoculation into the bone from contagious soft tissue infection or infected open wounds) [1-3]. The causative organism usually varies but staphylococcus aureus still remains the common causative organism of osteomyelitis in both adult and children. Other organisms includes but not limited to streptococcus pneumonia, Salmonella spp, Pseudomonas aureginosa and to a lesser extent E. coli and mycobacyterium [4, 5] In younger patients the condition is more common because the metaphyseal regions of the bones are highly vascular and thus very susceptible to trauma. Children will often present with fever and irritability, local erythema, swelling and tenderness over the affected area within two weeks of the disease onset in the case of acute osteomyelitis [1-3]. Chronic osteomyelitis is usually secondary to open wound and fractures, bacterimia or contagious soft tissues infections. Studies have shown that about 27% of patients with open fractures developed chronic osteomyelitis and this could be much higher in this part of the Ghana where studies have shown a high incidence of open fractures due to the high incidence of road traffic accidents [6] in addition to the practice of Traditional bonesetter which is very common in the northern part of Ghana [6]. There is also very low availability and accessibility to proper health care in this part of Ghana which could further exacerbate the already bad situation.