Infectious complications of external fixation in patients with polytrauma

Abstract

Annotation. Among the main causes of mortality and in the structure of primary disability in Ukraine, the consequences of injuries consistently rank third, second only to cardiovascular and oncological diseases. The intensive use of implants in traumatology and orthopedics in the second half of the 20th century, along with significant advantages in the tactics of surgical treatment and further improvement of the quality of life of patients, also contributed to the emergence of infection. The purpose of our work was to determine the features of the occurrence and localization of the infectious process after external fixation as a result of polytrauma. An analysis of the treatment of 181 patients who were hospitalized in the Department of osteomyelitis surgery at the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine was conducted. Statistical processing was carried out using the method of calculating the coefficient of the polychoric relationship indicator according to K. Pearson. As our study indicated, in 93.6% of patients with infectious complications of external fixation as a result of polytrauma, the pathological process was localized in the lower limb, which is associated with high-energy injuries inherent in multisystemic and multiorgan damage. Most often, the purulent process in patients with external fixation as a result of polytrauma was found in the lower third of the tibia (21.0%), the middle third of the tibia (17.9%) and the lower third of the femur (15.8%). Purulent complications in the area of the upper extremity in patients with external fixation as a result of polytrauma were observed four times less often than in patients with the same complications as a result of an isolated injury.