Although microorganisms initiate the infection, tissue breakdown is mainly caused by the host response.
There are potential complications for orthopaedic patients taking anticoagulation treatment, including haemorrhage [locally, from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract or intracranially], infection, wound breakdown, warfarin-induced skin necrosis [20] and prolonged hospital stay.
Standard AO plating of distal fibular fractures achieves acceptable and consistent union rates but has been associated with wound infection, wound breakdown and hardware prominence, with reported complication rates of up to 30%[4142, 43] 43].
The most common adverse events experienced by both groups included infection, skin breakdown and ulcer deterioration.
The commonest patient-reported complications were infection, wound breakdown and lymphocyst/lymphoedema.
If this happens in the epidermis, infection and breakdown of surfaces can occur.
In this subgroup, once again the commonest complications were infection, wound breakdown and lymphocyst/lymphoedema (Table 4).
Lengthy healing time, delayed or non-union, infection, wound breakdown, compartment syndrome and osteomyelitis are frequently reported.
However, plates are not without risks, they require greater soft tissue dissection, which carries a risk of infection, wound breakdown and devitalisation of the surrounding tissue.
In both groups the most common adverse events were infection, skin breakdown and ulcer deterioration with 29% of the 4LB group and 33% of the SSB group experiencing an adverse event (not significant, Table 4).
