Urinary catheterisation and deep wound infection after hip fracture surgery.

We have studied the incidence of deep wound infection after hip fracture surgery and its relationship to urinary catheterisation. Infection after hemiarthroplasty occurred in 16/949 cases and 10/1,143 sliding hip screw fixations. No cases of deep sepsis were seen for the 203 patients treated with an intramedullary nail or the 816 patients treated with parallel screws. The use of urinary catheterisation was compared with a control group of patients. In the sepsis group, 12/18 patients had been catheterised peri-operatively or within 24 h, as opposed to 18/36 patients in the control group; the difference between these two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.38). There was a statistically significant increase in the proportion of patients who had more than two urinary catheterisations (6/18 versus 3/36, P=0.05) or who had a long-term catheter (7/16 versus 3/36, P=0.01) in the sepsis group.