Abstract
Although suppurative osteomyelitis frequently occurs in long bones such as the femur and tibia, it rarely develops in flat bones because of their composition (mainly cancellous bone) and vascular supply. In this paper, the authors report an extremely rare case of patellar osteomyelitis in a child. The patient was a 7-year-old girl who injured her right knee and received treatment for the wound when a fistula developed. Subsequently, additional debridement was performed when pus was observed in the wound. Debridement was performed again on day 24 after the injury because symptoms such as fever had occurred in spite of immobilization and treatment with antibiotics. The infection subsided when granulation tissue was removed and the patellar lesion was curetted and continuously irrigated. Escherichia coli was identified as the causative organism. Follow-up at about 2 years after the operation showed that she had no functional deficit and could perform daily activities without any problems, although X-ray films showed abnormal patellar growth. Although early diagnosis and administration of antibiotics are important in the treatment of suppurative osteomyelitis, the lesion should also be surgically curetted and irrigated.
