Infection News

Data from a 4-year study conducted in one French facility suggest that PCR is a beneficial “add-on” to routine culture to diagnose patients with a suspected bone and joint infection.

According to study results, patients who underwent direct-anterior approach total hip arthroplasty and had incisional negative pressure dressings showed a surgical site infection rate that was not significantly different than those treated with standard dressings.

EFORT Open Reviews free to read is the new open access journal from EFORT and Bone & Joint Publishing. All articles are online with no subscription required.

NEW ORLEANS — Results presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition showed use of intrawound vancomycin powder and betadine irrigation at the end of posterior spinal fusion significantly lowered the surgical site infection rate in patients with idiopathic scoliosis.

by Sam Dyer, PA-C, MHS

DENVER — Patients managed with negative pressure wound therapy for severe open fracture wounds experienced lower physical quality of life scores and higher odds of developing deep infections that required operative management compared with patients who did not have the therapy, according to results presented at the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Annual Meeting.

CHICAGO — At long-term follow-up, patients with sesamoiditis, fracture, nonunion, osteonecrosis and arthritis who underwent isolated fibular sesamoidectomy reported long-term pain relief, according to a presenter at the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society Annual Meeting.

LAS VEGAS — At the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Annual Meeting, Kevin F. Lutsky, MD, discussed a study that looked at the rate of surgical site infections with the use of intraoperative corticosteroid injections in concomitant hand procedures. Lutsky said patients who underwent concomitant cortisone injections on the ipsilateral side of the surgical site had an increased risk of surgical site infections.

LAS VEGAS — Patients who received a corticosteroid injection within 1 year preoperatively of carpal tunnel release had an increased risk of surgical site infection, according to results presented here.

NEW YORK — The alpha-defensin lateral flow test yielded excellent sensitivity and specificity for periprosthetic joint infection and had a similar diagnostic performance to the laboratory-based test for alpha defensin, according to results presented at the Musculoskeletal Infection Society Annual Open Scientific Meeting.