Predicting the cure of osteomyelitis under treatment: concise communication.

The right tibias of sixty-six rabbits were injected with a suspension of Staphylococcus aureus and sodium morrhuate. After four weeks, 43 rabbits developed osteomyelitis and were started on a course of antibiotics. During treatment a gallium-67 scintigram was obtained every two weeks, for up to 10 weeks. During the treatment weeks, 25 rabbits developed negative gallium-67 scintigrams and were killed. All 25 had negative bacteriologic cultures of the right tibia. At the end of 10 wk after start of treatment, the 18 rabbits with persistently positive scintigrams were killed. Eleven of these had positive bacteriologic cultures of the tibia, and seven were negative. The findings suggest that sequential gallium-67 scintigrams may be useful in predicting the cure of osteomyelitis during treatment.