Abstract
Aim
This study investigated the management and clinical outcomes of patients treated for confirmed fracture-related infection (FRI) at 3 centres, in the UK and the Netherlands between 2015 and 2019.
Method
All patients with FRI, confirmed by the FRI Consensus Definition1 and treated surgically, were included. Data were collected on patient characteristics, time from injury to FRI surgery, soft tissue reconstruction, type of stabilization and use of local antibiotics. All patients were followed up for at least one year. The rates of eradication of infection and union were assessed. The associations between treatment methods, time from injury and outcomes were determined.
Results
433 FRIs were treated in patients with mean age 49.7 years (range 14–84). FRI affected the tibia in 226(52.2%), femur in 94(21.7%), pelvis in 26(6%), humerus in 20(4.6%) and foot bones in 19(4.4%). Patients were followed up for a mean of 26 months (range 12–72). Overall, eradication of infection was successful in 86.4% of cases and 86% of unhealed infected fractures were healed at final review. 3.3% required amputation.
Successful outcome was not dependent on age, or time from injury (recurrence rate 16.5% in FRI treated at 1–10 weeks after injury; 13.1% at 11–52 weeks; 12.1% at >52 weeks: p=0.52).
Method of stabilization had a major affect on outcome. Debridement and retention of a stable infected implant (DAIR) had a failure rate of 22.3%, implant exchange (to new internal fixation) 16.7%, conversion to external fixation 7.4%. DAIR was significantly worse than conversion to external fixation (p=0.01). There was no effect of the time from injury on the outcome of DAIR or any other fixation method.
The use of a free flap in the tibia improved the success rate from 80.4% to 92.1% (p=0.044). Outcome was adversely affected by use of a split skin graft alone in soft tissue reconstruction (44% failure) (p=0.006). The use of local antibiotics reduced the recurrence rate from 18.3% to 10.3% (p=0.022).
Conclusions
This study is the first to consider outcome for all FRIs, at all-time points, with all treatment modalities. Treatment was mostly successful but may be improved with better directed use of free flaps, local antibiotics, and limitation of DAIR. The results suggest that the division of FRIs into categories based on time from injury, may not be helpful with modern treatment.
