Antibiotic Impregnated Beads in Osteomyelitis

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of absorbable antibiotic beads in treating lower extremity (LE) infections and compare it to the current standard care. The study has several objectives: (1) to compare treatment failure rates between patients receiving intravenous (IV) and/or oral antibiotics plus antibiotic loaded absorbable beads with IV and/or oral antibiotics plus beads without antibiotics (sham beads). The primary question to be answered is whether patients treated with oral and/or IV antibiotics in conjunction with absorbable antibiotic beads have outcome (failure rate) that is not higher than those treated with standard care alone. The study's hypothesis is that the failure rate for patients receiving IV and/or oral antibiotics combined with antibiotic beads will be non-inferior to those receiving the standard care of IV or oral antibiotics without beads. The study will primarily focus on treatment failure rates as a key endpoint to measure effectiveness and compare the two treatment approaches.

Inclusion criteria

• patients with lower extremity osteoarticular infections with or without hardware

Exclusion criteria

• patients who are hemodynamically unstable or have altered mental status and cannot give consent
• patient per investigators discretion are excluded