suppuration
Last reviewed 05/2023
By the second or third day pus forms at the focus of infection.
The pus is able to penetrate cortical bone and form a subperiosteal abscess. Infection may track up and down the shaft of the bone.
The abscess may extend into:
- the surrounding soft tissue and eventually exit through the skin
- an adjacent joint:
- this is only possible in the adult if the metaphysis is within the capsule
- in the neonate the abscess can cross the growth plate and drain into the joint
Vertebral infection may cross the end-plate and the adjacent disc into the next vertebra.