Further observations on the value of oral penicillins in chronic staphylococcal osteomyelitis.

This report confirms after periods of observation of up to nine years, the successful treatment with high oral doses of cloxacillin or phenoxymethylpenicillin of 19 patients suffering from chronic staphylococcal osteomyelits. The antibiotic treatment was closely supervised over long periods, and the satisfactory response initially reported has been maintained in each case. Brief reference is made also to the use of the same treatment in a further 191 patients with chronic staphylococcal bone infection. Observations of the progress of 136 of these patients are continuing. At this stage the response in these patients confirms the value in chronic osteomyelitis of the long-term treatment with these penicillins which was established in the first 19 patients treated.