What to know about osteomyelitis after surgery

An infection can involve bone, nearby tissue, or surgical hardware. Possible clues include increasing pain rather than steady improvement, warmth, redness, drainage, wound separation, fever, chills, or reduced ability to use the limb. These signs can have other explanations, so diagnosis usually combines an examination with blood tests and imaging; the team may also sample fluid or tissue.

Tell the surgeon when symptoms began, whether they changed after a dressing change or medicine, and whether you have diabetes, circulation problems, or immune conditions. Do not squeeze a wound or apply unprescribed products to it.

Contact the operating team or an urgent medical service as soon as infection is suspected. Keep the wound covered as instructed, wash your hands before dressing care, and take prescribed antibiotics exactly as directed if they have been started. Do not stop treatment because symptoms briefly improve.

Treatment may involve antibiotics, wound care, drainage, or surgery depending on the findings and whether hardware is involved. In selected bone and fracture cases, [Bone Grafting](/treatments/trauma-and-fracture-care/bone-grafting/) may be discussed as part of reconstruction, but it is not a substitute for assessing infection.

Seek same-day assessment for fever with a painful surgical site, new pus or foul-smelling drainage, spreading redness, wound opening, or rapidly worsening function. Go to emergency care for confusion, severe weakness, fainting, breathing difficulty, or a rapidly deteriorating overall condition.

Ask what tests are needed, whether an infection involves bone or hardware, and how results will guide treatment. Confirm how to care for the wound, which activities are allowed, how long treatment may take, and whom to call if symptoms change.