Treatment of fracture-related infection of the lower extremity with antibiotic-eluting ceramic bone substitutes: case series of 35 patients and literature review

INTRODUCTION: The current treatment concepts of fracture-related infection (FRI) [Consensus Conference (Anti-Infection Task Force (AITF)) on the definition of acute or chronic osteomyelitis (cOM)] are associated with unsolved challenges and problems, underlining the need for ongoing medical research. METHOD: Literature review of treatments for FRI and description of own cases. RESULTS: We could include eight papers with 394 patients reporting treatments and outcome in FRI. The infection was resolved in 92.9% (mean) of all treatments. The mean follow-up was 25 months with a persistent non-union in 7% of the patients. We diagnosed 35 (19f/16m; 56.4 ± 18.6 years) patients with bone infections anatomically allocated to the proximal and distal femur (12×), the pelvis (2×), distal tibia (3×), tibial diaphysis (11×), the ankle joint (4×) and calcaneus (3×). These 35 patients were treated (1) with surgical debridement; (2) with antibiotic-eluting ceramic bone substitutes; (3) bone stabilization (including nail fixation, arthrodesis nails, plates, or external ring fixation), (4) optionally negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) and (5) optionally soft tissue closure with local or free flaps. The mean follow-up time was 14.9 ± 10.6 months (min/max: 2/40 month). The overall recurrence rate is low (8.5%, 3/35). Prolonged wound secretion was observed in six cases (17.1%, 6/35). The overall number of surgeries was a median of 2.5. CONCLUSION: The results in the literature and in our case series are explicitly promising regarding the treatment of posttraumatic fracture-related infection.