Anne Sullivan, MD, Orthopedic Surgeon - The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center: Osteomyelitis is a really big word, and I actually don't use that word that often because it's kind of big and nobody can spell it and it's kind of hard to pronounce. But really, what it means is infection involving a bone. So people who have infections involving bones, just like if they have infections involving other places, typically are treated with antibiotics.

But there are times when antibiotics alone don't take care of the problem. So sometimes we also have to do surgery to take care of osteomyelitis. So we have to remove the part of the bone that's infected or remove the areas around the bone that might be infected. We do a number of procedures to try to get rid of the infection.

Sometimes we actually put antibiotics directly in the area of the bone that's infected. We use what we call beads or spacers, and sometimes those are materials that we make right in the OR involving mixing antibiotics with other materials that are friendly to the body, and we place them in the area where the infection was.

A lot of times we try to use materials that dissolve so the patient doesn't have to have another procedure to take that material out once the infection is gone. Sometimes we do have to use materials that remain intact, and sometimes they have to be removed. Sometimes they get to stay in the body and don't bother anyone.

A lot of times, if joint replacements are involved and they're infected, we have some pretty complex procedures. Sometimes even a series of procedures where we really try to get rid of the infection and then hope to replace the joint the patient has with another joint, or at least a spacer that works something like a joint, or at least something that gets them to getting back to having a joint.

There are times that this can't be done, but that's always our primary objective. It's a very challenging area, and there's a lot of kind of new research going on in that area. And we're trying to stay involved with all that and bring the best that's out there back to our patients here.

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The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center]