bone infection

[nickimadden]

my boyfriend broke his leg back in april, he broke clean through his tib & fib, we're currently living in korea so it's difficult at this stage to communicate with the doctors very well, luckily a while back we moved to a different area and my boyfriend has been attending a different hospital. He has had numerous operations here, he had two plates in with pins (first), Then a few months later his leg got badly infected ( it was weeping) so they removed one of the plates a few months later in the next hospital they removed the other plate because of infection, now the area where the first plate was removed got infected , ( it always looked quite bad even months after the operation) so our new doctor , did surgery on this again, removing an absess that was leaking into the bone which was not properly healed, this resulted in bone infection and the doctor removed part of his bone, ( the doctor said it was not very large , but a week after all this , his leg is a little swollen and he's starting to feel pain again, the doctor said he might have to operate again, he's waiting to see, can anyone help me   understand, is this quite common?, we are worried whether he is in the best place,  reasons he might be getting all these infections, also the doctor is suggesting he stays in the hospital for 3 months, ( we were going to go home) I just want to know whats the best thing to do! I'm worried.

[JainMD]

Hi Nicki,
I think he had Cellulitis or abcess formation.
You told he had fever with swelling with red/purple color of skin over the area suggests that he had infection.
The fact that after starting medicines and after removal of abcess he is better suggests that he was growing organism in swelling which are now been taken care of.
I am surprised to know that he is taking oral medicines three times a day, is this antibiotic you are talking about?
You said he is getting yellow colored fluid through IV drip, can that be multivitamin infusion?
What organism is growing in the sample culture? Is the antibiotic which is started is sensitive to it?
Keep me informed Nicki.
Bye.

[nickimadden]

Thank you for your reply, you are very kind, He is just turning 27, I don't know how to tell you the position of the break, it's pretty much horizontal at a slant upwards , if that makes any sense!! His leg had a lot of swelling on one side due to the infection, the color was red/purple but with the treatment it's dulling down, he had his operation to remove the abcess last week , there is still heat radiating from it but the swelling is down, he takes oral medicine 3 times a day, and is on a drip for a few hours ,(yellow color) which I think they put some antibiotics into!?i'm not sure! language barrier! I don't know if there is a crackling sound, when he had previous infections he did have a fever , but now that's curbed, thanks for your insight , I won't see the doctor until tomorrow or the day after. I'll see what's up then, thanks again.
Nicki

[JainMD]

Hi Nicki,
How old is your boyfriend? You have mentioned that he has broken clean through tibia and fibula. What position is the fracture, is it distal or proximal or through the shaft?
Do you feel he has swelling in the leg? Does he also have pain? Does he have redness?
I think you should see surgeon again. It can be Cellulitis.
Cellulitis is a swelling which upon touching you would feel crackling sound and it would begin as a small, inflamed area of pain, and swelling. There would be redness in and around the area. As this red area begins to spread, the patient may begin to feel sick and develop a fever.
I think you need to continue treatment at the same, if the hospital is best one available.
You also need to see the organism growing from abcess. You need to see drugs which are sensitive to those organism and those drugs should be started at highest possible dose.
I would be interested if you keep me updated.
Bye.