Are You at Risk for a Bone Infection?

When you develop an infection — inside your body or on your skin — it’s always a good idea to act quickly to contain the problem and prevent it from spreading. Because that’s exactly what infections like to do — spread and flourish.

When infections travel bone-deep, quite literally, the situation can take a very serious turn — bone infections increase the risk of amputation by four times.

Called osteomyelitis, bone infections are serious business so it’s helpful to know whether you’re at risk. At Foot Ankle Leg Wound Care Orange County, our team, which is led by Dr. Thomas Rambacher, excels in treating skin and bone infections. At the heart of our wound care is controlling infections so that they don’t travel into your bones.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some issues that place you at higher risk for bone infections, narrowing our focus to those that occur in your lower limbs.

Diabetes and osteomyelitis

Heading the list when it comes to risk factors for bone infections in your lower limbs is having diabetes, more specifically slow-healing diabetic ulcers on your lower legs, ankles, or feet. These wounds develop in about 1.6 million Americans each year and, unfortunately, about 20% of these infections result in amputation, often due to osteomyelitis.

When you have diabetes, you can often have nerve damage in your feet, as well as damage in the blood vessels that service your lower limbs. As a result, you may not feel when there’s a wound, which allows time for infection to set in. And when infection does set up, your compromised circulation doesn’t deliver the resources and oxygen the wound needs to heal, allowing the infection to spread.

When an infection spreads to your bone, it can get into the bone marrow and create painful swelling. This swelling can also cut off circulation, which can lead to bone tissue death (necrosis).

Peripheral artery disease and bone infections

Another lower limb issue that places you at far greater risk for bone infections is peripheral artery disease (PAD), which affects 1 in 20 Americans over the age of 50.

With PAD, the arteries that deliver blood to your legs are narrowed due to plaque buildup. As a result, blood isn’t circulating well to your lower limbs, which can make healing far more difficult and prolonged.

There’s a good deal of crossover between diabetes and PAD — half of people with a diabetic foot ulcer also have PAD. This combination is not a good one and makes you far more vulnerable to issues like osteomyelitis.

Staph infections can travel to the bone

Another health issue that can lead to bone infections are staph infections. These infections occur when Staphylococcus aureus bacteria set up in your body, and these bacteria resist most antibiotics. Given this resistance, the infections are more challenging to control and they can travel into your bones.

However a bone infection develops, we want you to know that our practice is uniquely equipped to handle this type of health issue.

If you want to learn more about avoiding bone infections or you think you’re at risk for developing one, it’s important to contact our office in Mission Viejo, California, at 949-832-6018 or request an appointment online today.