Infection After Surgical Treatment of Ankle Fractures, a Multicenter Observational Study.

BACKGROUND

Infection is one of the challenging complications after open reduction and internal fixation for ankle fractures. Previously published case series conclude that is the most frequent causative microorganism. An unexpected increase in infections after this surgery was observed in a preliminary analysis of data at the promoting center of the study. In traumatology, its incidence has been reported in chronic osteomyelitis, prosthetic infections, septic osteoarthritis, open fractures in children and adults, and fractures other than the ankle. Because of this unexpected finding, we decided to perform this study to analyze the demographic and microbiological variables of acute osteosynthesis infection after ankle fracture and determine the distinctive features of the patients with infection.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective multicenter study including 4 university hospitals. All patients diagnosed with acute osteosynthesis infection after ankle fracture fixation between January 2015 and December 2018 were included. We analyzed demographic data, type of fracture, surgical technique, and microorganisms responsible for the infection. We performed a descriptive statistical analysis of the variables. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis were performed to compare patients with infection to patients with infection caused by other microorganisms.

RESULTS

A total of 65 patients were included. A predominance of polymicrobial infections (24.62%), followed by infections caused by (23.07%) and (23.07%) was observed. When isolated in polymicrobial infections were added, the incidence of as a causative microorganism increased to 32.3%. Patients with infection were older (64/53,  = .008) and had a higher requirement of negative-pressure therapy after surgical debridement (71%/40%,  = .017).

CONCLUSION

A high incidence of infections was observed. Patients with infection were generally older and required a higher use of negative-pressure therapy after debridement.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level V, mechanism-based reasoning.