Childhood Osteomyelitis

Abstract

During the years 1976 through 1980, 118 children with osteomyelitis were seen at our hospital, an incidence of almost 24 cases per year. Twenty-eight of these had sickle cell disease. Males were more commonly affected than females, with a ratio of 2.1 to 1, and bones of the lower extremities were more commonly involved, than those of the upper extremities with a 2 to 1 ratio. Seventy patients were anemic, with hemoglobin levels of 10 g/dl or less. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism isolated from patients with sickle cell disease, as well as those with normal genotype.