[Factors which have an effect on infections in orthopedic surgery]

In orthopedic reconstructive surgery infection is a fatal complication which compromises not only the functional result and worsens the starting, initial state, but sometimes, endangers the patient's life, especially when it is an elder person. In the literature there are data which state that in orthopedic reconstructive surgery there are certain risk factors, but there are no data about the following: which factors affect the infection incidence and how. It gets even a greater problem because various types of described infections are not well defined as characteristics of certain infections (superficial or deep) and they are not described in the same way by certain authors. That is why the goal of this paper was to enlighten these problems and to clear up the connection among risk factors and certain infections. That is how risk factors may be divided into factors typical for 1. infected tissue, 2. patient, 3. applied intervention, 4. direct postoperative period and 5. presence of a foreign body. In the conclusion it may be pointed out that the decrease in percentage of infections in orthopedic surgery cannot be achieved if all mechanisms and factors which affect it are not known. It is the characteristic of bone tissue that if it is once infected it cannot be healed spontaneously. However, there is no guarantee that there will be no relapse after an adequate therapy. Treatment of postoperative infections remains an open and one of the leading problems of the orthopedic septic surgery. First signs of infection should be promptly reacted to, because every deepening of infection and surgery prolongation prolongs the treatment to months and years, often without results.