Postoperative spinal wound infections treated by external spinal fixator. Review of three cases.

BACKGROUND

external fixation in the spine has been used with different objectives: to determine the prognosis of spinal fusion, improve stabilization after decompression in cases of trauma and for the progressive correction of scoliosis. Currently, we have not found any reports about its use in the case of postoperative infection with surgical wound dehiscence.

CLINICAL CASES: this is a retrospective study of three patients with postoperative infection of the spine and wound dehiscence. All three patients were male and had an average age of 57 years (range: 32-77 years). The infection started at an average of 7 weeks prior to the application of the external fixator (range: 2-12 weeks). Surgical wound dehiscence was on average 7 cm (range: 2-10 cm). The external fixator, on average, was used for 69 days (range: 36-125 days). There were no complications associated with the use of the external fixator. The external fixator was used as definitive treatment in one patient and as a temporary treatment in two patients.

CONCLUSIONS

the external fixator may be a useful implant for the treatment of patients with postoperative infections of the spine with surgical wound dehiscence and instability.