CASE REPORT   

European Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 2018 December;2(3):60-4

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-3466.18.00144-3

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Postextraction osteomyelitis of the mandible: a complication treated in a conservative approach

Demos KALYVAS, Efstathia TSETSENEKOU, Leonidas PODAROPOULOS ✉

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Osteomyelitis of the jaws is an infection of the medullary cavities by oral bacteria. It is often related to a traumatic extraction on a medically compromised patient. The treatment is a combination of surgical intervention that may vary in scale and antibiotic prescription that may vary in duration. We present a case of a postextraction mandibular osteomyelitis in a young, healthy patient that has been treated in a conservative manner with a minimal surgical intervention, limited to debridement of the area and sequestration, while a relatively short period of antibiotic regimen has been prescribed. Soft and hard tissues showed good healing clinically and radiographically for a 12-month follow-up period, confirming the choice of this conservative approach as a possible treatment option for certain small-scale osteomyelitis cases of the jaws.

KEY WORDS: Tooth extraction - Debridement - Osteomyelitis - Therapeutics