Hello,
If you have a pin infection that is not treated could it lead to osteomyelitis?
I understand that it's quite clearly noticeable in regular Xrays?
Does doing LL could lead to a very serious infection that could not be treated with antibiotics and last resort would be amputation of the limb?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4960058/Citations:
Of 285 fractures, 32 (11.2%) were complicated by infection. The incidence of infection according to montage was 3.9% (3/77) for ring fixators, which was significantly different (P < 0.04) from the 12.9% incidence (23/178) for unilateral fixators and the 20.0% incidence (6/30) for hybrid fixators (P = 0.004). The incidences of pin tract infection for the unilateral fixator group and the hybrid fixator group were not significantly different.
We reviewed the cases of fourteen patients with chronic osteomyelitis involving a pin track (twelve tibial, one ulnar, and one radial) after either external fixation (thirteen patients) or skeletal traction (one patient). In general, the involved pins had been inserted into cortical bone; in no patient was the pintrack infection in cancellous bone. Treatment consisting of débridement, curettage, open packing, and administration of antibiotics successfully eradicated seven of the eight Staphylococcus aureus infections but failed to cure four of the six gram-negative-rod infections. Repeat curettage with delayed fresh autogenous cancellous bone-grafting was successful in treating the more resistant infections.
