Since the expanded war in Ukraine in 2022, explosives, mines, debris, blast waves, and other factors have predominantly caused injuries during artillery or rocket attacks. These injuries, such as those from shelling shrapnel, involve high-energy penetrating agents, resulting in extensive necrosis and notable characteristics like soft tissue defects and multiple fragmentary fractures with bone tissue defects and a high rate of infection complications caused by multi resistant gram-negative (MRGN) pathogens. We conducted a prospective study at our center between March 2022 and December 2023. Out of the 56 patients from Ukraine, 21 met the inclusion criteria who had severe war injuries were included in the study. Each of these patients presented with multiple injuries to both bones and soft tissues, having initially undergone treatment in Ukraine involving multiple surgeries. The diagnosis of infection was established based on the EBJIS criteria. Prior to our treatment patients had undergone multiple revision surgeries, including debridement, biopsies, implant and fixator replacement. Additionally, soft tissue management required previously VAC therapy and flap reconstruction for successful treatment.Introduction
Material and Methods
Antimicrobial suppression has shown to significantly improve treatment success of streptococcal periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) compared to 12-week standard antimicrobial therapy, however, only short-term follow-up was investigated. In this study we assessed the impact of suppression on the long-term outcome of streptococcal PJI. Consecutive patients with streptococcal PJI (defined by EBJIS criteria) treated 2009–2021 were prospectively included and allocated into standard and suppression (> 6 months) treatment group. Infection-free survival was assessed with Kaplan-Meier-method and compared between the groups with log rank test. Rates of infection-free, streptococcal infection-free and relapse-free status as well as tolerability of suppression were assessed.Aim
Method