Infection News

The EFORT Open Reviews print issue includes papers for all Instructional Lectures presented at the 18th EFORT Congress and replaces the traditional EFORT Instructional Lectures book, in addition to a small selection of high-quality review articles that were recently published in EFORT Open Reviews.

At the recent 18th Annual EFORT Congress in Vienna, the interest in sessions about postoperative infection, especially its treatment, was noticeable. It seems to be a key topic for many orthopaedic surgeons. Certainly, we have patients with postoperative infections and we want to do our best to initially prevent it from happening, which is next to doing our best to eradicate it.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Effective Health Care Program recently released an updated systematic review that assessed prevention methods of venous thromboembolism following total hip replacement, total knee replacement and hip fracture surgery.

Use of incisional negative pressure wound therapy dressings achieved predictable length of stay, eliminated excessive hospital stay and minimized wound complications in patients who underwent total hip and knee arthroplasty, according to study results.

Looking back at the 18th EFORT Congress that ended a few days ago, I have a great feeling because it was well-attended with more than 6,000 congress participants and included excellent educational sessions on all 3 days of the congress.

Recently published results showed optimal synovial fluid white blood cell count and polymorphonuclear cell percentage for diagnosing chronic periprosthetic joint infection of the hip was closer to thresholds for the knee compared with thresholds previously reported for the hip.

Patients with closed tibia shaft fractures who underwent percutaneous or open reduction did not experience increased wound complications, infection or nonunion compared with patients who underwent closed reduction, according to results.

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

A 77-year-old woman, who was found down at her home, was brought to the hospital by ambulance. Her mental status was altered. The patient’s medical history was significant for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, oxygen at home (2L nasal cannula) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. She was underweight (BMI 17.2), and was taking opioids for chronic low back pain. Seven months earlier, the patient had fallen and reportedly had a right hip fracture at the time. She had been recovering well as a household ambulator who used a walker, but she continued to have baseline pain that was mostly associated with her back.

Since Nobel Laureates J. Robin Warren, AC, and Barry J. Marshall, AC, FRACP, FRS, FAA, DSc, implicated Helicobacter pylori as a causative agent in the pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease, infection has been proposed as the root cause of multiple disease processes. In recent years, the collection of all the microorganisms living in association with the human body, otherwise known as the microbiome, has gained much attention. Attention to this topic peaked when the White House announced the $121-million National Microbiome Initiative.