Chronic osteomyelitis in a Ugandan rural setting

Abstract

Chronic osteomyelitis is a debilitating dirty disease endemic in the peasantry communities. It persists because of delay in seeking medical treatment because the first line of treatment is mainly herbs where the terminal phalanges were involved. Sequestrectomy and curettage were a better option to disarticulation because the function of the finger is not interfered with. The biggest number of cases seen involved the phalanges (45.3%) followed by the tibia 21.6% because of the nature of occupation of the rural communities.