Purpose: We sought to conduct the largest retrospective study to date of open tibia fractures and describe the incidence of complications and evaluate the potential predictive risk factors for complications.
Methods: Patients with open tibia fractures treated with reamed intramedullary nail (IMN) across a 10-year period were evaluated. Patient charts were reviewed for demographics, type of open fracture (T), comorbidities, and postoperative complications. A multivariate model was conducted to determine the risk factors for each type of complication.
Results: Of the 486 patients with open tibia fractures, 13 % (n = 64) had infections, 12 % (n = 56) had nonunions, and 1 % (n = 7) had amputations. TIII fractures had much higher rates of each complication than TI and TII fractures. Fracture type was the only significant risk factor for both nonunion and infection.
Conclusion: Our study found that the Gustilo grade of open tibia fracture is by far the greatest predictor of nonunion and infection.
Keywords: Infection; Orthopedics; Tibia fractures.