Medical management of osteomyelitis: considerations for home antibiotic chemotherapy.

Osteomyelitis can result from hematogenous seeding or contiguous infection, especially in association with impaired vascularity. Appropriate antibiotic therapy requires identification of the pathogen or pathogens and confirmation that the pathogens are susceptible to the antibiotic selected. Because of the long duration of parenteral antibiotic therapy required, treatment of osteomyelitis is expensive when patients are kept in the hospital for this reason alone. The development of long-half-life antibiotics that can be administered intramuscularly once a day and that are well tolerated has made outpatient parenteral therapy possible for many such patients. Cefonicid is a long-acting second-generation cephalosporin with activity against many of the microorganisms involved in osteomyelitis. Clinical studies have shown that cefonicid is effective and safe when used in an outpatient treatment program. Such programs have realized considerable savings over the cost of inpatient therapy.