Comparison of Surgical Site Infections in Ankle Fracture Surgery With or Without the Use of Postoperative Antibiotics.

BACKGROUND

Surgeon preference has been replaced by an approach using evidence-based medicine in clinical decision making. The use of postoperative antibiosis in ankle fracture surgery is more common for inpatients but variable for outpatient surgery. Some surgeons prefer to prescribe 24 hours of oral antibiotics, whereas others give no antibiotics at all postoperatively. In this study, inpatients receiving 24 hours of intravenous antibiotics were compared to those patients receiving 24 hours of oral antibiotics and those receiving no postoperative antibiotics.

METHODS

A total of 1442 patients with ankle fractures requiring operative fixation were retrospectively reviewed in this multicenter study. Demographic data including age, sex, and body mass index were collected. Clinical data including diabetes status, smoking status, hepatitis C virus (HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status, infection requiring additional antibiotics, and infection requiring return to operating room (RTOR) were compared across the groups.

RESULTS

No differences in incidence of cellulitis or return to OR for infection were demonstrated between the 3 groups. No differences were noted among the groups for any risk factors for infection including body mass index, previous infection, smoking status, HCV/HIV status, or diabetes. The rates of cellulitis ( P = .402), infection requiring additional antibiotics ( P = .563), and infection requiring return to the operating room ( P = .878) showed no difference between the groups.

CONCLUSION

The use of antibiotics postoperatively did not decrease the incidence of surgical site infection. The findings in this study suggest that the routine use of postoperative antibiotics after ankle fracture surgery is not beneficial.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective comparative study.