IMPORTANCE Despite the widespread use of systemic antibiotics to prevent infections in surgically treated patients with fracture, high rates of surgical site infection persist.OBJECTIVE To examine the effect of intrawound vancomycin powder in reducing deep surgical site infections. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis open-label randomized clinical trial enrolled adult patients with an operatively treated tibial plateau or pilon fracture who met the criteria for a high risk of infection from January 1, 2015, through June 30, 2017, with 12 months of follow-up (final follow-up assessments completed in April 2018) at 36 US trauma centers.INTERVENTIONS A standard infection prevention protocol with (n = 481) or without (n = 499) 1000 mg of intrawound vancomycin powder. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe primary outcome was a deep surgical site infection within 182 days of definitive fracture fixation. A post hoc comparison assessed the treatment effect on gram-positive and gram-negative-only infections. Other secondary outcomes included superficial surgical site infection, nonunion, and wound dehiscence. RESULTSThe analysis included 980 patients (mean [SD] age, 45.7 [13.7] years; 617 [63.0%] male) with 91% of the expected person-time of follow-up for the primary outcome. Within 182 days, deep surgical site infection was observed in 29 of 481 patients in the treatment group and 46 of 499 patients in the control group. The time-to-event estimated probability of deep infection by 182 days was 6.4% in the treatment group and 9.8% in the control group (risk difference, -3.4%; 95% CI, -6.9% to 0.1%; P = .06). A post hoc analysis of the effect of treatment on gram-positive (risk difference, -3.7%; 95% CI, -6.7% to -0.8%; P = .02) and gram-negative-only (risk difference, 0.3%; 95% CI, -1.6% to 2.1%; P = .78) infections found that the effect of vancomycin powder was a result of its reduction in gram-positive infections.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among patients with operatively treated tibial articular fractures at a high risk of infection, intrawound vancomycin powder at the time of definitive fracture fixation reduced the risk of a gram-positive deep surgical site infection, consistent with the activity of vancomycin.

Objective: This retrospective study aimed at identifying opiate prescribing practices, the number of morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) prescribed by orthopaedic and nonorthopaedic providers in patients with operatively treated isolated lower extremity fractures, and provide opiate prescribing recommendations. Methods: Patients older than 18 years with isolated lower extremity (unicondylar, bicondylar, tibial shaft, pilon, and ankle) fractures between 2005 and 2016 were identified. Prescribing information was obtained from the State Controlled Substance Monitoring Database. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each injury and plotted for MME use. Mann–Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. To aid in clinical relevance, MMEs were converted to number of pills of oxycodone 10 mg (OC 10 mg). Results: Three hundred forty-one patients met our inclusion criteria. Mean age was 45 years; 56% (192/341) were men. Forty-seven percent (159/341) were prescribed opiates before their injury. Orthopaedic providers prescribed more opiates to patients with pilon fractures compared with unicondylar (P = 0.010), tibial shaft (P < 0.001), and ankle (P < 0.001) fractures. Bicondylar plateau fracture patients also received more opiates when compared with unicondylar (P = 0.001), tibial shaft (P < 0.001), and ankle (P < 0.001) fractures. Nonorthopaedic providers prescribed more opiates to patients with pilon fractures when compared with unicondylar (P = 0.006), bicondylar (P < 0.001), tibial shaft (P < 0.001), and ankle fractures (P = 0.006). Differences between orthopaedic and nonorthopaedic MMEs prescribed are significantly different for each injury type (<0.05). Conclusions: Patients with pilon or bicondylar tibial plateau fractures are currently being prescribed more opiates when compared with other isolated fractures. We have developed an opiate prescription guideline based on what is being prescribed by orthopaedic providers.

The video depicts the materials and steps for applying negative pressure wound therapy. The clinical case involves a patient who had sustained a thigh Morel-Lavallee lesion that developed overlying skin necrosis and drainage that was treated with surgical debridement and the application of negative pressure wound therapy.

This video depicts the materials and steps for creating an antibiotic cement spacer in the form of an intramedullary nail and demonstrates how to insert the nail into a tibia. The indication for this patient was a history of a type 3B open tibia fracture 6 months before treated with an intramedullary nail that subsequently developed an infected nonunion.

Key Points Question Were resource constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic associated with a delay in urgent fracture surgery beyond national time-to-surgery benchmarks? Findings In this cohort pre-post study that included 3589 patients, there was no association between time to surgery and COVID-19 in either open fracture or closed femur/hip fracture cohorts. Meaning Despite concerns that the unprecedented challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic would delay acute management of urgent surgery, many hospital systems within the US were able to implement strategies in keeping with time-to-surgery standards for orthopedic trauma.