1. Surgical Site Infections After Foot and Ankle Surgery
- Author
-
Ryan L. McMillen, Nicholas J. Lowery, Dane K. Wukich, and Robert G. Frykberg
- Subjects
Research design ,Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism ,Postoperative Complications ,Diabetes mellitus ,Surgical site ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,Diabetes Mellitus ,Humans ,Surgical Wound Infection ,Prospective Studies ,Prospective cohort study ,Original Research ,Aged ,Advanced and Specialized Nursing ,Glycated Hemoglobin ,business.industry ,Foot ,Foot and ankle surgery ,Clinical Care/Education/Nutrition/Psychosocial Research ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Surgery ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Peripheral neuropathy ,Logistic Models ,Female ,Ankle ,business ,Foot (unit) - Abstract
OBJECTIVE This prospective study was designed to evaluate the rate of surgical site infection (SSI) after foot and ankle surgery in patients with and without diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study prospectively evaluated 1,465 consecutive foot and ankle surgical cases performed by a single surgeon. RESULTS The overall SSI rate in this study was 3.5%, with significantly more infections occurring in individuals with diabetes than in those without (9.5 vs. 2.4%, P < 0.001). Peripheral neuropathy, Charcot neuroarthropathy, current or past smoking, and increasing length of surgery were significantly associated with SSI on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates significant associations between the development of SSI and chronic complications of diabetes. We confirm previous findings that it is peripheral neuropathy and not diabetes itself that most strongly determines the development of postoperative infections in these surgical patients.
- Published
- 2011