Treatment of chronic postsurgical osteomyelitis with ciprofloxacin.

Sixteen patients (11F, 5M, age 18-83, mean 59.8 years) with chronic postsurgical osteomyelitis were treated with ciprofloxacin. The dosage was 500 or 750 mg twice daily orally during one to six months; four patients started with 300 mg twice daily intravenously and changed after 3-7 days to oral therapy. Twelve patients had implanted prostheses. The organisms involved were Enterobacteriaceae (11), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7), Staphylococcus aureus (5), Streptococcus faecalis (4) and Bacteroides fragilis (1). Nine patients had pure cultures, seven mixed cultures. Cure (disappearance of infection symptoms, return of normal function with negative cultures, without resurgery) was obtained in 11 patients, improvement (resurgery required to obtain complete cure) in two. Three patients with infections by Staphylococcus aureus (2) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1) failed to respond after one and four months treatment respectively. No side effects were observed.