• Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Jan 2025

    Comparative Study

    Does a gentamicin-coated intramedullary nail prevent postoperative infection in Gustilo type I and II tibial open fractures? A comparative study and retrospective analysis.

    • S K Rai, T P Gupta, Manoj Kashid, Bhavya Sirohi, Amit Kale, Ritesh Sharma, and Arjun Gandotra.
    • Military Hospital Ambala Cantt, Ambala, Haryana, 133001, India. skrai47@yahoo.com.
    • Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2025 Jan 27; 51 (1): 8686.

    PurposeTibial open shaft fractures are very common and susceptible to infection, which can lead to significant morbidity especially infection and non-union. Antibiotic coated nail is one option for fixing open shaft tibial fractures to minimise infection. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcome of Gentamicin-coated tibial nails versus regular unreamed interlocking tibial nails in the treatment of type I and II tibial open fractures.MethodsBetween 2013 and 2020, in a retrospective study of 124 patients with Gustilo type I and II tibial fractures compared non-antibiotic-coated nails (62 patients) with gentamicin-coated nails (62 patients) over 12 months. This study assessed infection rates, duration of hospital stays, fracture union time, and complications.ResultsThe antibiotic nail group had significantly lower postoperative infection rates (3.2%) than the regular nail group (17.7%), (χ2 = 4.64, p = 0.031). At the 6-month follow-up, significant differences were observed in ESR (p = 0.031), CRP (p = 0.019), leukocyte count (p = 0.0241), and blood culture (p = 0.018), but not in hemoglobin levels (p = 0.067). The Gentamicin-coated nail group demonstrated better fracture union rates at 6 and 12 months, (p = 0.0267) and lower overall complication rates.ConclusionA tibial nail coated with Gentamicin is an effective method for preventing infection in type I and II open fracture shafts of the tibia. It allows, shortens hospital stay and healing time, prevents infection, and thus reduces the chance of a second surgery.Level Of EvidenceLevel III, a retrospective study.DesignRetrospective analytical study.HypothesisWe hypothesized that Gentamicin-coated nail is effective in preventing infection in Gustilo type I and II open fractures compared to non-antibiotic-coated regular nails.© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…