Randomized Trial to Assess PO Versus IV Antibiotics

Exclusion Criteria

• •1. Patients who have high risk of amputation of the study limb (based on opinion of the initial managing physician).
• •2. Patients undergoing treatment with any other investigational therapy within the month preceding implantation or planned within the 12 months following implantation.
• •3. Patients with history of chronic infection at the site of study injury, defined as:
• •patients with chronic osteomyelitis identified by radiographic erosion or sequestrum; or patients with more than one instance of surgical treatment of infection and approximately 6 week course of antibiotics.
• •4. Patients with pathological fractures; a known history of Paget's disease.
• •5. Patients for whom the definitive treatment of the study injury was an external fixator.
• •6. Patients who are currently on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) medication (e.g. Zoloft, Prozac, Celexa), and bacteria is MRSA
• •7. Patients with cultures positive in thio only.
• •8. Patients who are incarcerated or who have unstable housing situations due to concerns regarding ability to receive home care, adherence phone calls, and maintain follow up. .
• •9. Patients or designated proxy who are unwilling to provide consent.
• •10. Patients with a history of IV drug use who in the investigator's opinion are unsuitable candidates for IV therapy.
• •11. Patients likely to have severe problems maintaining follow-up, including patients diagnosed with a severe psychiatric conditions, patients who live too far outside the hospital's catchment area.
• •12. Patients with traumatic brain injury or who are intellectually challenged and who lack adequate family support to ensure adherence to the protocol.
• •13. Patients unable to swallow oral medications or without adequately functioning GI tract.
• •14. Patients who, based upon the clinical judgment of the treating clinician, are NOT equally suited for treatment with either oral or intravenous antibiotics (i.e., those for whom there is a clinical treatment preference).