Treatment of posttraumatic osteitis with intravenous ofloxacin

The subjects were 25 patients with osteomyelitis (n = 17) or other bone or joint infections, scheduled for surgical procedures, including debridement, sequestrectomy, and bone resection and reconstruction. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in 22 patients, Staphylococcus epidermidis in one, Streptococcus haemolyticus in one, Pseudomonas aeruginosa in one, and a Pasteurella species in one. During surgery and for a mean of four days after surgery, each patient received 200 mg of ofloxacin intravenously twice daily (one patient received 300 mg and another received 400 mg twice daily). The patients were then given 200 mg of ofloxacin orally twice daily until the wound was healed (after a mean of 18 days). The wound was healed in all patients and no cases of reinfection occurred. It is concluded that intravenous ofloxacin given perioperatively may be more effective than oral ofloxacin in the management of osteomyelitis.