THE INCIDENCE OF OSTEITIS IN OPEN FRACTURES - AN ANALYSIS OF 948 OPENFRACTURES (A REVIEW OF THE HANNOVER EXPERIENCE)

Even though treatment protocols of open fractures have been improved i n the past two decades, osteitis is still a major complication in thes e injuries. To investigate the primary factors responsible for posttra umatic osteitis, 19 cases of osteitis out of 297 open fractures (retro spective series from 1981 to 1983) and nine cases of osteitis out of 6 51 open fractures (prospective series from 1984 to 1989) were analyzed . The Hannover fracture scale was used for quantitative evaluation of the injury. A high prognostic index for bone infections was found for the amount of bone loss, the fracture type, the type of bacteriologic contamination, deep soft-tissue defects, compartment syndromes, vascul ar injuries, and soft-tissue infections.