Background/Aim: Osteoarticular infections are frequent, dreadful with often a hard care and a significant socio-economic cost. The aim of this study is to describe their epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects.

Materials and Methods: This was a prospective and descriptive study of 48 months involving 105 patients. It concerns all consenting patients treated for a chronic osteoarticular infection.

Results: We included 105 patients with 133 different lesions locations. The mean follow-up was 14 (range 7-26) months. Males were the predominat subjects (71.4%; n=75) with a sex ratio of 2.5. The mean age of the patients was 32.7 (range 4-58) years. Twenty-three individuals had at least one history (diabetes and sickle-cell disease were the most frequent). The lesions were often of hematogenous (77.1%; n=81) origin. Most individuals (52.4%, n=55) began self-medication or consulted a traditional healer (25.7%; n=27) initially. Chronic osteomyelitis and osteitis accounted respectively for 61% (n=64) and 22.9% (n=24). The most common location was tibial (35,2%; n=37) and humeral (7,6%; n=8) respectively in the lower and upper limb. Pain, swelling, wound and bone exposure were the frequent clinical signs. The radiological manifestations were mostly in order sequestrum, abcess, periosteal reaction and osteolysis. Streptococcus aureus (52.3%, n=11) was the first isolated germ. We performed surgical treatment in 71.4% (n=75) of patients mostly including a "postage stamp" corticotomy (37.1%; n=39).

Conclusion: The chronic OAIs care is complicate and need multidisciplinary competences. In our case, the way that patients consult late is a pejorative factor.