A study in NMMC may answer issues on post-op infections of nailed long bones

 A Retrospective Study on the INCIDENCE OF INFECTION FOLLOWING INTRAMEDULLARY NAILING OF CLOSED TIBIAL AND CLOSED FEMORAL SHAFT FRACTURES IN Northern Mindanao Medical Center covering the period of January 2010 to December 2012 was done in 267 long bone fractures (192 femurs and  75 tibias) . The outcome of interest was deep infection. All patients with traumatic tibia and femoral shaft fractures were included. Patient with open fractures , pathological fractures and those who were operated outside NMMC but followed up in our institution were excluded.

Incidence of infection in closed tibial shaft fractures and closed  femoral shaft fracturesthat were done opening at fracture site technique ranged from 0% to 4% and 0% to 0.5%,respectively whereas no infection occurred in closed nailing group . These incidences appear to be reasonably similar with other published results.    The result of this study shows that opening the fracture site during surgery increases the risk  for  deep  infection.  Other factors identified would include the  experience  trauma surgeon, break in sterility in the operating room, as well as the length of surgery.