CORR Insights®: Delays to Surgery and Coronal Malalignment Are Associated with Reoperation after Open Tibia Fractures in Tanzania

摘要

Open fractures have an increased risk of not only infection but also nonunion and malunion. Previous studies have stated that operative débridement of open fractures within 6 hours of injury may minimize the risk of subsequent infection. More recent studies have shown that the 6-hour guideline is not always applicable, and that some open fractures such as those caused by low-velocity gunshot wounds and other low grade and upper extremity open fractures, do not require or benefit from formal operative débridement. Some surgeons have utilized this information to justify delay or avoidance of operative débridement for a wide variety of open fractures [3, 6, 13, 16, 17]. The results of the current study [2] show that timely débridement of open fractures of the tibia remains important to reduce the likelihood of infection.