Causes and treatment of osteomyelitis after fracture surgery

After a fracture, surgery is generally required to repair the fracture site in clinical practice. After the operation, osteomyelitis is very likely to occur due to factors such as infection. The following article will introduce the causes and treatment methods of osteomyelitis after fracture surgery.

Causes of postoperative osteomyelitis in fractures:

One of the most common causes of post-traumatic osteomyelitis is postoperative infection of open fractures, followed by infection after fracture reduction or other bone and joint surgery. It can be acute or chronic, and the lesions are near the fracture ends. Another cause is necrosis and infection of the skin and muscles near the fracture, which causes the fractured segment without blood supply to be exposed to the air and dry and necrotic, and the course of the disease turns into a chronic disease, which is often accompanied by infected nonunion or bone defect.

Treatment:

1. Acute phase

(1) Open the incision for drainage immediately during the acute phase to prevent pus from entering the bone marrow cavity.

(2) Adequate doses of broad-spectrum antibiotics should be used systemically, and medication should be adjusted according to the results of bacterial culture and drug sensitivity tests.

(3) Limb fixation and dressing changes: fixation with plaster tubes, opening holes for dressing changes, or fixation with external fixators for easy dressing changes. After treatment, the disease enters the chronic stage.

2. Chronic stage

(1) The dead bone, dead cavity, sinus and other lesions are removed and soft tissue coverage is completed.

(2) Ilizarov technique can be used for nonunion or bone defect.