Arthrotomy for septic ankle arthritis yielded higher rates of infection vs. arthroscopy
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Patients who underwent open arthrotomy for septic ankle arthritis had significantly higher odds of surgical site infection and hospital readmission compared with patients who underwent arthroscopy, according to published results.
Using the Mariner dataset of the PearlDiver database, researchers obtained demographic and comorbidity characteristics, including age, gender, infectious etiologies and Elixhauser comorbidities, of patients who underwent irrigation and debridement through either arthroscopy (n=168) or arthrotomy (n=794) for septic ankle arthritis between 2015 and 2020. Researchers considered the rate of reoperation, defined as a proxy for failure of initial intervention, as the primary outcome. Researchers also compared readmission, surgical site infection (SSI), amputations, wound complications and 90-day medical complications between the two groups.
Results showed patients who underwent open arthrotomy and patients who underwent arthroscopy had no significant differences in reoperation rates. However, researchers found patients in the open arthrotomy group had significantly higher rates of SSI and hospital readmission compared with patients in the arthroscopy cohort.
“Case-specific patient and technical considerations should guide the surgical decision-making process to limit secondary complications, as this study exemplifies similar reoperation rates between the two surgical modalities,” the authors wrote.
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