Similarities and Differences between Clavicular Bacterial Osteomyelitis and Nonbacterial Osteitis: Comparisons of 327 Reported Cases.

BACKGROUND: Currently, both clavicular bacterial osteomyelitis (BO) and nonbacterial osteitis (NBO) remain not well understood owing to their much lower incidences. This study is aimed at summarizing similarities and differences between clavicular BO and NBO based on comparisons of literature-reported cases. METHODS: We searched the PubMed and Embase databases to identify English published literature between January 1st, 1980, and December 31st, 2018. Inclusion criteria were studies evaluating clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of clavicular BO and NBO, with eligible data for synthesis analysis. RESULTS: Altogether, 129 studies with 327 patients were included. Compared with BO, clavicular NBO favored females (P < 0.001) and age below 20 years (P < 0.001) and mostly presented in a chronic phase (disease term exceeding 2 months) (P < 0.001). Although local pain and swelling were the top two symptoms for both disorders, fever, erythema, and a sinus tract were more frequently found in BO patients (P < 0.01). Although they both favored the medial side, lesions in the clavicular lateral side mostly occurred in BO patients (P = 0.002). However, no significant differences were identified regarding the serological levels of white blood cell count (P = 0.06), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P = 0.27), or C-reactive protein (P = 0.33) between BO and NBO patients before therapy. Overall, the BO patients achieved a statistically higher cure rate than that of the NBO patients (P = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Females, age below 20 years, and a long duration of clavicular pain and swelling may imply NBO. While the occurrence of a sinus tract and lesions in the lateral side may be clues of BO, inflammatory biomarkers revealed limited values for differential diagnosis. BO patients could achieve a better efficacy than the NBO patients based on current evidence.

Clinical characteristics and treatment of clavicular osteomyelitis: a systematic review with pooled analysis of 294 reported cases.

BACKGROUND: It is usually difficult to diagnose clavicular osteomyelitis (OM), and treatment is delayed because of its rarity. This study aimed to summarize clinical characteristics and treatment of this disease. METHODS: We searched the PubMed and Embase databases to identify English studies that reported on clavicular OM from January 1980 through December 2016. Effective data were pooled for analysis. RESULTS: In total, 111 studies comprising 294 cases (bacterial OM, 146; nonbacterial OM, 148) were included, with a sex ratio of 1.89:1 indicating female predilection. Overall, the median age at diagnosis was 16 years. The acute to chronic phase ratio was 0.30, with a median symptom duration of 4 months. The most frequently reported symptom was pain (192 cases), followed by swelling (151 cases) and fever (52 cases). Altogether, 86.94% cases of single-site involvement were reported, with the medial side being the most common site (69.95%). The erythrocyte sedimentation rate achieved the highest positive rate (74.44%) before treatment. The total positive rate of culture for bacterial OM was 81.82%, with Staphylococcus aureus being the most frequently detected pathogen (44.70%). The average cure rate was 83.52%, with no significant difference between surgical (89.70%) and nonsurgical (79.63%) cases (P = .079). CONCLUSIONS: Clavicular OM, predominant in female patients and young people, usually occurred at a chronic stage. Pain was the most frequent symptom, with the medial side being the most involved site. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate may be a helpful indicator for diagnosis. Regardless of surgery or nonsurgery, most patients achieved a favorable prognosis.