ArticleJournal of orthopaedic surgery and research2021
Sonication in the diagnosis of fracture-related infections (FRI)-a retrospective study on 230 retrieved implants.
Article in Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Significance of Sonication in the Detection of Peri-Implant Infections.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- From serum inflammatory markers to fluid, tissue, and molecular assays: current advances in the laboratory diagnosis of bone and joint infections.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Twenty common errors in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of fracture-related infection (FRI).Journal of bone and joint infection · 2026Review
- Sonication fluid cultures enhance pathogen identification in fracture-related-infection (FRI).Journal of bone and joint infection · 2026Article
- Sonication versus peri-implant tissue culture in fracture-related infection: diagnostic performance and therapeutic consequences in a single-center cohort.Journal of bone and joint infection · 2026Article
- Fracture-Related Infections: Current Status and Perspectives from the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Systematic investigation and comparison of diagnostic methods in implant-related infections and infectious non-unions in trauma surgery- results of a prospective study.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2025Article
- Membrane Filtration of Sonication Fluid-A Promising Adjunctive Method for the Diagnosis of Low-Grade Infection in Presumed Aseptic Nonunion.Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society · 2025Article
- Microbiota shifts in fracture-related infections and pathogenic transitions identified by 16S rDNA sequencing.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Epidemiology and Outcomes of Infected Non-Unions: An Observational Study at an Infectious Disease Referral Centre.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Fracture-related infections after osteosynthesis for hip fracture are associated with higher mortality: A retrospective single-center cohort study.Acta orthopaedica · 2024Article
- Is Taurolidine Irrigation Effective in Preventing Surgical Site Infection during Fracture Surgery?Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Current Concepts of Fracture-Related Infection.International journal of clinical practice · 2023Review
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6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn fracture-related infections (FRI), both the diagnosis of the infection and the identification of the causative pathogen are crucial to optimize treatment outcomes. Sonication has been successfully used for periprosthetic joint infections (PJI); however, its role in FRI remains unknown. Our aim was to determine the diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity, specificity) of sonicate fluid culture (SFC). The primary objective was to compare SFC with peri-implant tissue culture (PTC) overall and among subgroups using the consensus definition by Metsemakers et al. The secondary objective was to determine the yield of SFC in possible fracture-related infections (PFRI).
methodsFrom March 2017 to May 2019, 230 cases of retrieved implants were retrospectively reviewed. To perform sonication, explants were placed in sterile polypropylene jars intraoperatively. After treatment in an ultrasonic bath (Bandelin, Berlin, Germany), sonicate fluid was incubated into blood culture bottles, and conventional culturing was eventually performed. Sensitivity and specificity were determined using two-by-two contingency tables. McNemar's test was used to compare proportions among paired samples while Fisher's exact test was used for comparison between categorical variables.
resultsOf the 230 cases, 107 were identified as FRI, whereas 123 were aseptic revision cases (ARC). Of the latter, 105 were labeled as PFRI. Sensitivity of SFC was higher in comparison with PTC, although this did not reach statistical significance (90.7% vs. 84.1%; p = .065). The specificity of SFC was significantly lower than that of PTC (73.2% vs. 88.6%; p = .003). In PFRI, SFC yielded significantly more positive results than PTC (33/105 vs. 14/105; p = .003). Overall, 142 pathogens were identified by SFC, whereas 131 pathogens were found by PTC.
conclusionsWe found that sonication of fracture fixation devices may be a useful adjunct in FRI, especially in "low-grade" infections lacking confirmatory clinical criteria. Standardized diagnostic protocols are warranted in order to further optimize the diagnostic accuracy.
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