Interleukin-6 versus Common Inflammatory Biomarkers for Diagnosing Fracture-Related Infection: Utility and Potential Influencing Factors
Table 1
The diagnostic criteria, inclusion and exclusion criteria for FRI group and FH group.
FRI group
FH group
Diagnostic criteria
According to the consensus of international experts on the diagnosis of FRI, if any of the following four primary diagnostic criteria [1] is met: (1) Formation of sinus or fistula or opening of wound causes bone or implant exposure (2) Purulent exudate in the wound or pus accumulation is found during surgery (3) Positive culture of pathogenic microorganism from deep tissue (4) Positive histopathological test
According to the clinical standard of FH [16], all the following items should be met: (1) No tenderness or longitudinal percussion pain in local part of the fractured site (2) No abnormal local activity (3) X-ray shows continuous callus at the fractured site, and the fracture line has been blurred
Inclusion criteria
(1) Diagnosed as FRI (2) Patients had available data regarding WBC, ESR, CRP, and IL-6 levels before surgery, which were obtained 2 weeks of antibiotic withdrawal (3) At least one data of the following items should be included: sex, age of onset, injury feature and type, body side and bone site of infection, and culture results of intraoperative samples (4) If the patients had been admitted to the hospital for several times, only the data most related to the first hospitalization of FRI were used
(1) The FH exactly, which met the diagnostic criteria of FH (2) The patient required removal of the fracture fixation devices (3) Patients had data regarding WBC, ESR, CRP, and IL-6 levels before surgery, which were obtained 2 weeks of antibiotic withdrawal (4) The patient was admitted to the hospital only because of FH, without comorbidities
Exclusion criteria
(1) Bone infection following hematogenous spread or diabetic foot (2) Acute or subacute osteomyelitis (infection weeks) (3) PJI (4) Unavailable data or missing data
(1) Comorbidities that may influence levels of the biomarkers (2) Unavailable data or missing data
