Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24531401›Full record

SynthesisInternational orthopaedics2014

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the additional benefit of local prophylactic antibiotic therapy for infection rates in open tibia fractures treated with intramedullary nailing.

Joyce Craig, Thomas Fuchs, Michelle Jenks, Kelly Fleetwood, Dominik Franz, Joel Iff, Michael Raschke

Open access · hybridAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in International orthopaedics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
50citing papers in PubMed
4.5field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

50 citing papers in PubMed, 102 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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  13. Outcomes after primary intramedullary nail fixation of open tibial and femoral fractures in low resource settings.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2023
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
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  18. Review
  19. Does prophylactic local tobramycin injection lower open fracture infection rates?OTA international : the open access journal of orthopaedic trauma · 2022
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

Joyce CraigYork Health Economics Consortium, University of York, York, YO10 5NH, UK, joyce.craig@york.ac.uk.
Thomas Fuchs
Michelle Jenks
Kelly Fleetwood
Dominik Franz
Joel Iff
Michael Raschke
University Hospital Münster · DELeeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust · GBSynthena (Switzerland) · CHUniversity of York · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThis analysis compared the rate of deep wound infections in patients with open tibia fractures, treated with intramedullary nails, receiving additional locally-delivered antibiotics to those receiving standard care.

methodsTwo systematic literature searches identified studies reporting infection rates in patients treated with intramedullary nails for tibia fractures receiving systemic antibiotics only (search one) and in patients receiving adjunctive locally-administered antibiotics peri-operatively at the tissue-implant interface (search two). After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 14 and seven papers from searches one and two, respectively, were included in meta-analyses.

resultsThe absolute rate of infection was lower for all Gustilo-Anderson grades of tibia fractures when local antibiotics were administered as adjunctive prophylactic therapy. For severe fractures, classified as GAIII fractures, patients receiving systemic antibiotics only had an infection rate of 14.4 % [95 % CI: 10.5 %, 18.5 %]; adding local antibiotics reduced the rate to 2.4 % [0.0 %, 9.4 %], with an odds ratio of 0.17. Risk of deep wound infections increased with severity of fracture, rising to over 31 % in GIIIB&C fractures for patients receiving systematic antibiotics only, but to below 9 % with additional local antibiotics.

conclusionThe findings support consideration of augmenting the antibiotic prophylaxis regimen to include locally-delivered antibiotics. Patients with severe fractures will obtain greatest benefit from infections avoided. No trial directly compared the two treatments for open tibia fractures, limiting the ability to attribute the differences in observed infection rates directly to the treatments themselves. A large comparative study to improve the evidence on relative effect size is merited. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.

Indexed as

Antibiotic ProphylaxisBone NailsFracture Fixation, IntramedullaryFractures, OpenHumansTibial FracturesWound Infection

Identifiers

PMID24531401
PMCPMC3997785
OpenAlexW1988668157

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.