Surgical Site Infection in Orthopaedic Oncology

Background: This study addressed risk factors for surgical site infection in patients who had undergone orthopaedic oncology surgical procedures. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data on 1521 orthopaedic oncologic surgical procedures in 1304 patients. We assessed patient demographics, updated Charlson comorbidity index, surgery-specific data, and treatment-related data and attempted to identify predictors of surgical site infection with bivariate and multivariable analysis. Results: Eight factors independently predicted surgical site infection: body mass index (odds ratio [OR]:, 1.03, 95% confidence interval [Cl]: 1.00 to 1.07), age (OR: 1.18, 95% Cl: 1.05 to 1.33), total number of preceding procedures (OR: 1.19, 95% Cl: 1.07 to 1.34), preexisting implants (OR: 1.94, 95% Cl: 1.17 to 3.21), infection at another site on the date of the surgery (OR: 4.13, 95% Cl: 1.57 to 10.85), malignant disease (OR: 1.46, 95% Cl: 0.94 to 2.26), hip region affected (OR: 1.96, 95% Cl: 1.35 to 2.84), and duration of the procedure (OR: 1.16, 95% Cl: 1:07 to 1.25). Conclusions: These factors can inform patients and surgeons of the probability of surgical site infection after orthopaedic oncologic surgery. While most risk factors are unmodifiable or related to the complexity of the case, infection at another site on the date of the surgery is one factor amenable to intervention.