Journal of Orthopedic Oncology
Open Access

Research Article

Surgical Site Infections in Treatment of Musculoskeletal Tumors: Experience from a Single Oncologic Orthopedic Institution

¹Oncologic Orthopedics Unit, “Regina Elena”, National Cancer Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy

²Infectious Disease Unit, “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy

³Medical Oncology Unit, “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute, 00144 Rome, Italy

*Corresponding Author:

Barbara Rossi
MD, Oncologic Orthopedics Unit, “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute
Rome, via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Italy
Tel: +39 -338 7777872
Fax: +39- 06-52662929
E-mail: barbararossi82@yahoo.it

Received Date: Mar 02, 2016; Accepted Date: Mar 16, 2016; Published Date: Mar 23, 2016

Citation: Rossi B, Zoccali C, Toma L, Ferraresi V, Biagini R (2016) Surgical Site Infections in Treatment of Musculoskeletal Tumors: Experience from a Single Oncologic Orthopedic Institution. J Orthop Oncol 2:108. doi:10.4172/2472-016X.1000108

Copyright: © 2016 Rossi B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: Limb-sparing surgery is the mainstay treatment for musculoskeletal tumors thanks to advances in surgical techniques, imaging modalities and multimodal therapies. As patients survive longer, plastic reconstructive procedures and revision surgery are increasingly required after tumor excision. Infection rate is reported to be up to 20% after prosthetic replacement and 30-44% after pelvic resection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs), identifying the causative microrganisms related to specific surgical procedures and significant risk factors for SSIs. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 723 interventions performed between 2009 and 2015 for oncological conditions. Non neoplastic lesions, aseptic wound complications, non-skeletally mature patients were excluded. Standardised antibiotic prophylaxis was used for different surgical procedures and maintained until removal of surgical drains. Results: Without considering tumor types and surgical sites, the overall infection rate was 8.7% (63/724). Infection occurred in prosthetic reconstruction with an incidence rate of 7.8%, whereas almost half of patients having undergone pelvic surgery got infected and about 20% of patients with spinal surgery and amputations were infected. Pelvic location, malignancy and radiotherapy were related to a major risk of SSI. The causative pathogens were detected in all examined cases. The most frequent pathogens detected by culture included Staphylococcus aureus (27 cases, 47.4%) and S. epidermidis (10 cases, 17.5%). Among the S. aureus cases, 10/27 cases (37%) were methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Sixty-three out of 130 microbial isolations (47.7%) were nosocomial ALERT organisms. Conclusion: Oncologic orthopedic surgery is burdened by frequent and challenging SSIs because of extensive soft tissues dissection, long operative times and poor skin conditions. Patients are immunosuppressed and often have concomitant comorbidities predisposing to SSIs. Monitoring of local bacterial aetiology of SSIs could help orthopedic oncologic specialized centres in achieving the optimisation of antibiotic prophylactic regimens.

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