Does Antibiotic Treatment Before Bone Biopsy Affects the Identification of Bacterial Pathogens From Bone Culture in Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis? A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis
Lawrence A Lavery, Arthur N Tarricone, Andrew William Ernest Madsen, Nitish Thirugnanasambandam, Allen Gee, Dane K Wukich, Edgar J G Peters · 2026
Read Does Antibiotic Treatment Before Bone Biopsy Affects the Identification of Bacterial Pathogens From Bone Culture in Diabetic Foot Osteomyelitis? A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis by Lawrence A Lavery, Arthur N Tarricone, Andrew William Ernest Madsen, Nitish Thirugnanasambandam, Allen Gee, Dane K Wukich, Edgar J G Peters (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13179428.txt.
Description
When diabetes rots the bone in a foot, doctors biopsy the bone to name the germ, and many first ask whether antibiotics given early spoil that test. Lawrence Lavery led a team that pooled the evidence in a systematic review. They searched three databases for studies comparing culture results in patients who did or did not get antibiotics before the biopsy.
Four studies qualified. Pooled, the odds of a positive culture were nearly the same in both groups, with a ratio of zero point seven eight and a wide margin that crossed no effect. The result was far from significant. The team concludes that holding antibiotics before biopsy does not seem to change what the culture finds, so treatment need not wait on the test.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Lawrence A Lavery, Arthur N Tarricone, Andrew William Ernest Madsen, Nitish Thirugnanasambandam, Allen Gee, Dane K Wukich, Edgar J G Peters |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 18 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |