Culture-Negative Infection After Operative Fixation of Fractures.

Abstract

(1) Compare the outcomes of patients with orthopaedic trauma with culture-negative infection with those with pathogens identified; (2) identify the incidence of culture-negative infection and describe the common characteristics. Retrospective study. Two level 1 trauma centers. A total of 391 patients 16 years of age or older who underwent irrigation and debridement for surgical site infection after having undergone fracture fixation were included. Patients underwent irrigation and debridement with cultures, and antibiotic therapy was initiated. Treatment failure due to unsuccessful eradication of infection and time to union. We found 9% incidence of culture-negative infection. Approximately one-third of patients in both groups went on to have treatment failure (25% of pathogen-specific infections, 38% of culture-negative infections, P = 0.15), and there was no difference between the 2 groups with regard to time to union (22 vs. 24 weeks, P = 0.55). More than one-third of patients required subsequent reconstructive procedure and 5% of patients in each group required amputation to control their infection. There was no difference between the groups with respect to the use of antibiotics before intervention and culture. This study confirms the devastating effect that postoperative infections can have and suggests that, with clinical sign of infection, negative cultures do not portend a better prognosis. These entities should be treated in a similar manner to infections with positive cultures. Furthermore, we believe that future studies should not strictly rely on the presence of positive intraoperative cultures. Consensus as to what constitutes a clinical infection, in the absence of positive cultures, is needed. Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.