After reviewing the histories of more than 2,000 American children who were treated with antibiotics for bone infections, a national team of pediatric researchers has come up with a surprising finding that could change the way kids receive the drugs in the future. The large study found that children who were discharged home with oral antibiotics did just as well in overcoming their bone infections as those who were sent home on intravenous antibiotics. Said Children's Hospital of Michigan Chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics for the Wayne State University School of Medicine Banu Kumar, M.D., who led the Children's Hospital of Michigan group participating in this study, "This very large clinical trial shows that oral antibiotics also cause significantly fewer complications and that there is no advantage of the more invasive prolonged intravenous therapy. Based on these very hopeful findings, clinicians who treat pediatric bone infections may want to reconsider prescribing intravenous delivery of antibiotics for patients who are being sent home for extended drug therapy."