INFLUENCE OF REAMING VERSUS NONREAMING IN INTRAMEDULLARY NAILING ON LOCAL INFECTION-RATE - EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION IN RABBITS

The question of whether the impairment of the endosteal blood supply, which is induced by nailing with reaming of the medullary cavity, incr eases the risk of a postoperative infection cannot be conclusively ans wered by studying existing literature, The aim of this study was to in vestigate the effect of medullary reaming on the occurrence of local i nfection based on an infection model in the rabbit tibia (n = 44), An infection rate of 50% was found after unreamed nailing, as opposed to an infection rate of 64% after medullary reaming, The number of bacter ia observed after reaming was significantly higher than after nail ins ertion without previous reaming, The differing susceptibilities to inf ection as observed in this model are statistically significant (p less than or equal to 0.05).