Handbook of Orthopedic Infections 2026: A Clinical Textbook Covering Bone, Joint, and Soft Tissue Sepsis for Musculoskeletal Surgeons

It is 2 a.m. The patient on the orthopedic ward has new fever, a draining sinus over a six-month-old plate, and four prior antibiotic courses — and the answer is not in the chart you just inherited.Treat the wound without identifying the pathogen, debride without controlling the biofilm, or extend IV antibiotics by reflex, and you will preserve the infection while losing the limb, the implant, and the patient's trust.This handbook gives you the integrated clinical reasoning to recognize the pathogen, time the surgery, select the regimen, and finish the course — across every orthopedic infection that walks through your door.Inside this book:• The 14-day antibiotic holiday — when to hold antibiotics before bone biopsy and how to defend that decision with the team• Kanavel's four signs in real time — recognize pyogenic flexor tenosynovitis fast enough to preserve hand function• The OVIVA shift — move appropriate patients to oral therapy at week two without compromising cure rates• DAIR versus two-stage exchange — apply the five-variable framework that drives PJI surgical decisions• The probe-to-bone test — diagnose diabetic foot osteomyelitis at the bedside without waiting for MRI• The Pott pattern — distinguish tuberculous spondylitis from pyogenic disease on the first MRI review• Necrotizing infection within six hours — recognize the LRINEC-supported case and move to the operating room before mortality climbs• Antibiotic-loaded cement spacers — fabricate, dose, and time them across the two-stage exchangeFor orthopedic surgeons, infectious disease physicians, hospitalists, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, residents, and fellows managing musculoskeletal infection.Buy the handbook your patients need you to have read before they arrive. Read more