Abstract
Objective: To analyse the role of surgery along with antimicrobials to improve clinical outcomes in treating refractory cases of skull base osteomyelitis (SBO).
Study design and setting: A prospective comparative study in a tertiary care centre with 70 SBO patients meeting eligibility criteria.
Participants: The study population comprised 35 patients refractory to systemic antimicrobials of at least four weeks duration who later underwent surgery in addition to medication (surgical group). They were compared with a medical group that responded to medications alone.
Main outcome measures: The outcome variables studied were the resolution of clinical features (pain, discharge, radiology, and inflammatory markers), culture yield, and total duration of treatment.