A new technique for modeling of hematogenous osteomyelitis in pigs: inoculation into femoral artery.

A new inoculation technique has been developed and applied in a porcine model of juvenile hematogenous osteomyelitis. Following the success of the model, we describe the inoculation technique in detail to enable its replication in future studies. The technique was based on an anatomical feature of the femoral artery that enables inoculation into the artery using a simple surgical procedure. Inoculation in the femoral artery is advantageous because the localization of lesions constitutes a discriminative model of the naturally occurring hematogenous osteomyelitis in long bones, usually involving femur and tibia in children. The procedure was performed under general anesthesia and consisted of five major steps: (1) Exposure of the right femoral artery, (2) retrograde catheterization, (3) inoculation of bacteria, (4) hemostasis of the arterial puncture site using compression, and (5) suturing of the wound in two layers.