DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEW MODEL OF HEMATOGENOUS OSTEOMYELITIS IN THE RAT

Hematogenous osteomyelitis was produced in the tibia or the mandible o f rats by drilling a hole into the bone, injecting sodium morrhuate, a nd inoculating Staphylococcus aureus Phillips into the femoral vein, A nimals were sacrificed after 2 weeks and examined, The infection was c haracterized grossly and radiographically by bone deformation, histopa thologically by a characteristic suppurative reaction, and microbiolog ically by the recovery of S. aureus Phillips from the infected tissue, These findings indicate that the model mimics human osteomyelitis wit h respect to its inflammatory bone changes, In contrast to earlier rat models in which bacteria were injected directly into the bone, this n ew experimental model allows study of the initiating events of osteomy elitis such as bacterial attachment and might assist as a model for bo th prophylactic and therapeutic trials.