The use of quantitative bacterial counts in open fractures

Late infections remain a significant complication in the treatment of open fractures, occurring in 2% to 25% of all open fractures. Recently there has been a trend toward early soft-tissue coverage of open fracture wounds. Quantitative bacterial counts have been used primarily by plastic surgeons to assess the viability of primary versus delayed wound closures. Quantitative bacterial counts were obtained in 52 consecutive open fractures in 50 patients to assess the correlation between quantitative bacterial counts and subsequent sepsis, to determine the effect of time to debridement on the quantitative bacterial count, and finally to review the bacteriology of open fractures. Forty-one of the 52 fractures had positive quantitative bacterial counts. Four of eight (50%) fractures with quantitative bacterial counts greater than 10(5) developed late sepsis, while only two of 44 (5%) with quantitative bacterial counts less than 10(5) or negative quantitative counts became infected. There was no correlation between time to debridement and quantitative bacterial count levels. A significant percentage of the positive quantitative bacterial counts were gram-negative organisms.