How to prevent osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis is an infection in bone. Germs can reach bone through a deep wound, an open fracture, an operation, nearby infected tissue or the bloodstream. Risk is higher when a wound stays open, contaminated or poorly supplied with blood. Prevention focuses on keeping injuries clean and covered, protecting surgical sites, and managing health problems that slow healing with help from a clinician. Once infection is suspected, prevention advice is no substitute for treatment.

Wash hands before touching a wound, rinse away visible dirt as advised, and use a clean dressing. Follow instructions for antibiotics, wound reviews, casts and post-operative care; do not stop prescribed treatment because the skin looks better. Avoid soaking a healing wound unless the treating team permits it. Protect the area from repeated friction and seek advice if a dressing becomes wet or dirty. After a serious injury or bone operation, attend planned checks. If bone healing is complicated, ask whether [Bone Grafting](/treatments/trauma-and-fracture-care/bone-grafting/) is relevant; this is a specialist decision, not a home prevention measure.

Contact a clinician promptly for increasing redness, warmth, swelling, drainage, worsening pain, fever or a wound that is opening. Seek urgent care if you feel very unwell, develop confusion, severe weakness, rapidly spreading redness, or cannot use the affected limb. After surgery or a fracture, new drainage or escalating pain should be reported even without fever. Early assessment may include examination, blood tests or imaging and helps determine whether infection has reached bone.

Ask how to dress and wash the wound, which changes require a same-day call, and when the next review should occur. Ask how your medicines, circulation or healing problems affect infection risk and what activity is safe while the area recovers.