[Translated article] Infection related to closed diaphyseal femoral fractures treated with external fixation and subsequent internal fixation at a reference hospital: A cross-sectional study

Introduction The definitive management of fractures is not completely unhazardous, with fracture-related infection (FRI) being one of the complications. The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of FRI in patients with closed femur fractures treated with initial external fixation followed by definitive fixation at a reference hospital.Materials and methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted over a seven-year period. Patients aged 18 to 65 years with closed diaphyseal femoral fractures were included. FRI was defined according to the international consensus of Metsemakers et al. Demographic, clinical, and microbiological variables were analysed using descriptive statistics with STATA v16.0.Results A total of 32 patients were evaluated, with a mean age of 33.9 years; 81.3% were male. Traffic accidents accounted for 87.5% of the cases, most frequently involving motorcycles (84.3%). The most common AO classification was 32B (53.1%). Conversion to internal fixation was performed between 4 and 21 days after the trauma. The prevalence of FRI was 12.5%, appearance of infection signs in the femur was between 3 and 16 days, and the predominant bacterial isolate was gram-negative bacteria.Conclusions The prevalence of early infection was higher than that reported in other settings, with a predominance of Gram-negative bacteria. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to identify risk factors and to guide region-specific prevention strategies.